Movie Reviews: Cold in July (2014) and The Rover (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

A couple of movies, just out in these past few weeks, are worth considering for the way they justify anachronistic masculine concerns with their simple, respective applications of period setting. The Rover is set in the near future, in a world where an unexplained (though I believe the reason is strongly implied) lack of women contributes to the macho aesthetic. Cold in July has it far easier, taking place nearly 30 years ago in Texas where gender equality was not unheard of but definitely slower in getting a foothold.

The Shackling of Django Unchained (2012)

by Tony Dayoub

The last time I discussed Quentin Tarantino's films at length here was a little over 3 years ago when I got into it with critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, defending Inglourious Basterds (20009) as more than just a "film that seems morally akin to Holocaust denial." Frankly, I didn't find the revisionism in Basterds—particularly the blatant recasting of Hitler's death as part of a gory massacre in a locked theater auditorium—to be offensive or even problematic. Basterds' climax was characteristic of the propaganda-like take on the American war films of the 40s that Tarantino was riffing on, movies in which Americans were clearly the "white hats" and the Axis were not only their opposite number; they were racially stereotypical, incompetent goons. Besides which, the violent death of Hitler, and not by his own hand, seemed like the kind of wish-fulfillment narrative few would admit finding unsatisfying on at least a primal level. Django Unchained is more of a mixed bag, another revisionist take on history by Tarantino, one that finds the director losing the thread of the conversation he himself instigates. And in this case, it's difficult to ignore his inclination to overindulge.