With maybe one notable exception, it never did a filmmaker any good to call out his or her critics -- especially in the month leading up to the release of one's sprawling, studio-saving World War II epic in the dumping ground of mid-August. But that's what Quentin Tarantino is trying out anyway for Inglourious Basterds, which he's hyped tirelessly for over a year now just to give a good portion of his momentum back with one candid burst.
In a new interview with GQ, Tarantino qualified Basterds and the rest of his oeuvre as the work of an artist who "draw[s] a line in the sand." If only the reactions to Basterds from Cannes (including Movieline's own) reflected that polarizing quality more than merely a lukewarm nod of acknowledgment -- the same stifled yawn that has greeted so much of his fare since his electrifying, genuinely challenging debut tandem of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. That's the standard to which critics are holding Basterds, and why not? A breakthrough debut can be a classic, but for better or worse, a breakout follow-up is legend-making.
Which is part of QT's problem: For those critics impatient with the legend, Basterds isn't quite downplaying the flukiness of Tarantino's genius. Sorry, Mr. Tarantino! Not that he's worried, notes GQ:
The "bona fide literary film critics"--the ones he respects, as opposed to Internet mole people and "celebrity journalists"--mostly dug the movie. And when the studio screened it this week in L.A., it went over huge. [...] "I respect criticism," he says. (He's been working on a movie-review book, on and off, for a few years.) "But I know more about film than most of the people writing about me. Not only that, I'm a better writer than most of the people writing about me. And I can write film criticism better than most of the people writing about me."
Oh boy. This throws quite the wrench in Harvey Weinstein's second career. Anyway, how about TV criticism? Can we stick to that? Because really, if this movie thing doesn't work out in the end, you were great this year on American Idol.
ยท Triumph of His Will [GQ via The Big Picture]