Four Writers in the (Grind) House!

Written by: The CinCitizens

Not All Directors Are Created Equal – by Lance Carmichael

Although I certainly have some ambivalence about Grindhouse, for the most part, I whole-heartedly approve of this undertaking. And I especially approve of them trying something new and different in the way of feature film presentation There’s two full movies here, plus four trailers and fake advertisements for the price of one. What’s not to like? Obviously there’s no way all those different films can be a unified whole in terms of quality, but with two filmmakers as dedicated to providing viewers with a full-on entertainment experience, it’s a pretty great deal.

I will attempt to briefly defend Tarantino’s half of the movie against Rob’s criticism. I think he’s doing more than just recreating and mashing up a beloved and nearly-forgotten pop culture relic from his childhood that he loved and found meaning in. But before I do, let me say that it’s fair to say that that is what Rodriguez is almost completely doing. Tarantino has always been a much more complicated (and better) filmmaker than Rodriguez. Rodriguez has talent as a visual stylist and choreographer of violence, but that’s about it. He’s sort of hitched his star to Tarantino’s wagon, and he’s got to take the good with the bad of that. The good: he gets to have access to Tarantino The Writer when he’s writing his scripts and soak up all the good ideas, and he gets to bask in the reflected glory of Tarantino’s explosive talent. The bad: because he puts his movies up side by side with him, we can all see that he is no Quentin Tarantino. The only two Robert Rodriguez movies that really hold up are From Dusk til Dawn and Sin City. The first was written by Quentin Tarantino. The second was written and co-directed by Frank Miller (and a scene was co-directed by Tarantino. Again, Rodriguez brings a lot to the table as a director. But he hasn’t proven he can do it alone.

And Rodriguez's half of Grindhouse (Planet Terror) doesn’t change things. Planet Terror is entertaining, but too long and doesn’t really offer much beyond the (very good) joke of making the most ridiculous zombie movie his talent will allow. But Death Proof (and the trailers) are the real reason to watch Grindhouse.

What Tarantino does is take the structure of a slasher film and, yes, comment on it, but also use that formula to draw out the very provocative psycho-sexual underpinnings buried (not all that far) under the surface. And how does he do that? Mostly by just showing us some three-dimensional feeling characters in the context of this very artificial genre formula. And by getting all self-reflexive on us by, basically, making a well-constructed, continually suprising movie with three dimensional characters in a (mostly) ridiculous movie genre. And this self-reflexive shit just doesn’t get old for me: I feel like I’m learning stuff when I watch his films. It both makes me recognize in a very pointed way how artificial the genres I consume (that I sometimes just accept as natural) are AND he makes me see how these genres can allow artists to have a productive space to show us certain truths. Whatever. It’s entertaining as hell, and he makes you feel for the characters who are about to get killed. And he implicates you to a certain extent in buying tickets for a movie where you KNOW these women are going to be killed. Again, very self-reflexive. Self-reflexiveness = good. Have I made my point? Am I being repetitive? Sorry!

He gets a little carried away, of course, a little self-indulgent in the dialogue. And Death Proof is basically the same movie, twice. That’s its main flaw. But he’s totally committed to the characters and the situations, no matter if they’re improbable slasher-movie stuff or naturalistic girl talk. Rodriguez’s Planet Terror plays by the rules they set up for the whole Grindhouse project and is poorer because of this. Rodriguez’s movie is one long smirk—and this is fun. But there’s nothing to think about. That’s not necessarily a bad thing when the film is called Grindhouse. But Rodriguez, who seems to be becoming a better filmmaker, only shows us how far he still has to come when he puts himself in direct comparison with someone as immensely talented as Tarantino.

Unreviewable – by The Red Baron

Movies like Grindhouse epitomize my reluctance to write reviews of any kind.  Movies, like any art form, for me, have always been a subjective experience, fully integrated into a universe where there’s no accounting for taste.  This is not to say movie reviews are not worth reading or writing.  Far from it.  But I find it interesting that it takes a behemoth like Grindhouse to force me to express my feelings about it in prose form.

I agree with Rob’s assessment of the potential disingenuous nature of Grindhouse, which is that who, besides people who grew up loving trashy exploitation cinema like Tarantino and Rodriguez, is going to withstand this 3 hour juggernaut?

I suppose only time will tell.  I myself think that Grindhouse will have a significant mass appeal.  There’s enough sex and violence to satisfy the youngsters that make up most of the moviegoing populace that studios target.  It’s incredibly long, but it’s scattershot enough that it give its audience permission to get up and take a break without feeling like they missed something.  It’s already so self-admittingly self-indulgent that it’s hard to criticize it for being too self-indulgent.

I also agree with Lance’s assessment.  Underneath the superficial schlock-fest, there’s deeper explorations of theme and character, and borderline academic dissections of genre conventions.

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