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A review by kurtwombat
Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.75
Here in his distinct voice, we have Quentin Tarantino crushing on 13 films mostly from the 70’s. I will state this up front—I AM the target audience for this commentary. I sprang from the 70’s, love movies, love Tarantino movies, love pulp in any form (even orange juice) and am not easily offended. And similar to Tarantino, how I fell in love with movies has a lot to do with the family I grew up in. If that sums you up, immediately knock anyone and anything out of your way and grab this book. This was pure fun for me. Avoiding the usual best of/worst of format, Tarantino makes it personal by choosing movies that impacted his ‘70’s childhood. The book begins and ends with largely autobiographical chapters—Tarantino reads these himself for the audiobook. The final chapter is very touching and one of my favorite book endings ever (certain not something I expected here). Reinforcing what a personal experience movies can be, he remains autobiographical in every chapter. He spends almost as much time on how and where he saw the film as he does discussing the actual movie. This could be a distraction, but it made the movies pop for me. His enthusiasm then and now is the juice that runs the projector. Potentially dry commentary is transformed into a living experience. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, I will remember the movies but I will remember more how Tarantino made me feel about the movies.
Content Warnings
Rather than tiptoe through the above categories I will just say that the author is free with language and vividly descriptive of the language and cultures portrayed in the movies he has written about and the the people in his life who contributed to how he sees the world and movies. If you love Tarantino and movies then read on. If you have issues with occasional spicy language or vivid descriptions of human activity--then maybe choose another direction.