. . . there’s something disarming about quentin tarantino . . .
. . . he feels like one of us and somehow that gives the illusion he’s accessible, a movie geek bro you could sit down with in a bar and engage in a fervent discussion with about trash cinema. of course you get this feeling from his image and from the films he directs. from his acting too, like his portrayal of jimmy in pulp fiction and richie in from dusk till dawn. you’ve never seen scorsese or spielberg play characters like these in film. sydney pollack was a director who acted in film. his characters, though, were upper class, sophisticated, well-dressed men of power, lawyers and government officials. tarantino’s characters? sleazy. take richie from dusk till dawn. quite a total criminal loser who wears a retainer and forces women to have sex with him then kills them (at least he did that with one woman in the film – and i believe he’s done it before). it took major balls for tarantino to play the part nonetheless and it couldn’t have helped his image much unless he wanted to nurture the image of a psycho criminal loser. made clooney look better of course. but if you think about it quentin tarantino is a power director, a major power director. he’s been behind several smash box office hits and that makes him a god in the movie business. sure he’s not michael bay, he’s not spielberg. but he’s as big as soderbergh if not bigger and he’s bigger than aranofsky in stature. if you think about it tarantino’s a man in a suit, he’s titan, a mogul . . .
