Consistency is king

I've been gone for a while making sure that my work is in order, and although I should be continuing that right now everybody needs some solace. Right?

My Farmville is shaping up nicely. For anyone who doesn't know who that is I strongly suggest not pursuing the knowledge; it will absorb you.

I know no one is going to agree with me on this but the weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately. I love how quickly it got breezy and chilly. I can't even explain how great my morning commute has been: pitch black with virtually no one on the road on a blustery late summer/early fall morning. It's really an excellent way to start the day, believe it or not. Much better than that 8 a.m., 90-degree trek all the way down Route 1 over the summer.

The video for the day is an incredibly poor quality clip for one of the less impressive songs on a truly impressive album. Don't get me wrong; the song is great. But of all the songs, this isn't even one of the better ones. It's called I Believe in the Good of Life by a band described by the lead singer as "gay church folk band" called The Hidden Cameras. I can't advocate enough for this band if you're looking for something new to listen to.

# 28: Inglourious Basterds

I remember the days when I hated Quentin Tarantino: the days before I got it. I never was able to appreciate his over-the-top violence, abundant non-sequiturs, and annoying and seemingly out-of-place soundtracks. I didn't understand his popularity and I vowed never to see Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, or Kill Bill.

Flash forward a few years and I own the special edition of Pulp Fiction and consider it one of my favorite movies. I kick myself every time I hang out in the house watching something and forget to rent Reservoir Dogs. I own Kill Bill 1 & 2 having seen and loved both of them. I recently purchased True Romance despite knowing little to nothing about it solely because Mr. Tarantino wrote it. My favorite scene in Sin City just happens to be the one scene he directed. And I have been looking to pick up From Dusk Till Dawn for some time now. In short he's become one of my favorite writers/directors.

It took me some time to realize just how talented a writer he is. This movie is the perfect example. On the one hand you may not want a movie's best scene to come at the very beginning, but then again this opening presented to me what instantly became my favorite monologue of all time. Seriously. The film's villain--a man so vile and repugnant that you can't help but love him--casually delivers a sickeningly logical holocaust-defending argument to a man who is subsequently brought to tears. It undoubtedly chilled everyone in the audience and set the tone for a memorable World War II movie more throwback propaganda than historical fiction.

Despite setting the bar astronomically high for the film Tarantino was able to achieve consistency effortlessly. There were no lulls in this--no expendable scenes. Every character was necessary even if he or she didn't seem so at the time. Three distinct plotlines were penned, each so engrossing that it made you forget about the other two until the scene changed. He continues to be one of the most purposeful screenwriters in the business.

One thing that I think Tarantino does better than any other writer/director I've seen is tenseness. You won't find suspense done any better in a horror, action, or mystery film. In addition to the opening scene--which I absolutely cannot say enough about--four or five scenes stuck out as unforgettable if for nothing else than how uncomfortable you felt watching them, desperately waiting for the outcome. This is as much attributed to his writing and directing as it is his casting. I have yet to see a Tarantino film in which the cast doesn't collaborate flawlessly; the conflicts are always very real and the sound relationships--however few and far between--always have very tangible chemistry. The Basterds, specifically, in this movie exude camaraderie in the few scenes in which we see all of them together.

I have to mention Brad Pitt specifically here. Although his part isn't really as big as the trailers made it out to be, he played the brutish hero to a T and contributed the majority of the laughs to the movie. I think he is one of those actors who is easy to write off because he's become far better known for his looks than for his acting ability, but no one could have pulled this part off more naturally.

My initial qualm about Tarantino was the sense of pretension I got from him. I thought his stylized pieces--complete with chapters and ambiguous symbols--indicated that he took himself far too seriously. After all, his movies seemed far more absurd than profound. I rarely change my tune about things like that; when I get that sense from someone I generally stick to it. In this case, however, having finally experienced him adequately both through his work and through interviews, I've really come to appreciate this youthful creativity and enthusiasm in him. He's an incredibly smart and talented person--don't get me wrong--but it seems that his propensity for excessive violence, helter-skelter storytelling, and curveball detours can be attributed far more to an insatiable sense of humor and a conscious refusal to succumb to the conventional.