Grindhouse

NYTimes review (A.O. Scott, who's gotten a lot of reviews right in my book) said Death Proof was A+ and Planet Terror was weak, and I see some people agree, but I have to say I think both were top shelf. Rodriguez' had more of the 70s feel to me, with the insane gore (some of it perpetrated against Mr Gore himself, Tom Savini), the gratuitous and ridiculously stylized shots of mostly-naked women, the crazy coincidences, the people who you're 100% positive are dead popping back up later on when it's convenient for them to do so, etc. But the final sequence of Death Proof might be the best 20 minutes I've ever seen on film. I was climbing over the back of my seat, or pressing my feet through the seat in front of me for the first half of it, then I was laughing hysterically for the second half, still laughing through the credits, still laughing out the door of the theater, to my car, and halfway on the drive home. My abdomen will hurt for days from that. The long conversation in the diner didn't work for me, as it was too competently shot and acted for it to qualify as pure camp or send-up (cf. the conversations in the cars, which cut back and forth so awkwardly that they feel like camp), so it did just kind of get on your nerves. But what a small price to pay for such cinematic gold!!