7. Django Unchained
Tarantino's latest film, Django Unchained, has been earning a range of critical assessments ahead of its release, ranging from "better than Death Proof but worse than everything else" - a view that I share - to "his best work since Pulp Fiction". The second part of the director's revisionist history experiment has him this time tackling the American slave trade, delivering a so-called "Southern", a Western set in the south that also meshes elements of blaxploitation cinema. Jamie Foxx plays the titular Django, a black slave who is freed at the start of the film by dentist-turned-bounty-hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), as he believes that Django will lead him to a fruitful bounty. In exchange, Schultz takes him under his wing and offers to help him rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from a psychotic plantation owned named Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Django Unchained is a long, thoroughly excessive film that's nevertheless extremely enjoyable because it's got all of the requisite Tarantino elements; clever, verbose dialogue, gratuitous, insane violence, and fantastic performances. Best of show is unquestionably DiCaprio's Candie, but Samuel L. Jackson and Waltz aren't far behind either. If not as refined and water-tight as Inglourious Basterds, Django is still another damn-fine effort from the filmmaker even if it's not up there with his very best works.