In my Quentin Tarantino ranking, I placed the directors latest film, The Hateful Eight, in eighth position (out of nine), putting it only ahead of Death Proof - a film Ive long considered a QT side-film, free from his actual canon - as Tarantinos very worst film. The Hateful Eight has received mixed-to-favourable reviews, but for me it didnt strike a single chord, ending up as that rare thing: a hated film from a director whose work I usually love. Or should that be loved. Problems have been creeping into the directors oeuvre for a long time now, problems that early on in his career were easy to gloss over but are now becoming more salient, more prominent as QT approaches his tenth film (because Kill Bill doesn't count as one) and third decade as a director. Tarantino criticism is a peculiar thing, and with his near-universally beloved 90s period firmly in the rear-view, he has become something of a Marmite director, provoking intense reaction and anything but apathy. If theres one thing you never want art to incite, it's apathy, so before the hate begins, lets at least credit Tarantino with that. But the hate must begin, and here are eight reasons why.
