Oh Mary Elizabeth Winstead...

Death Proof(dir. Quentin Tarantino)
This could be considered a religious movie if car chase-ism was considered a religion. In this film, speed is considered divine and cars are considered as holy vessels. The morality in this film is fairly simple: whoever is going fast is God and whoever tries to stop one from going fast is The Devil. There's only two chases in this film, but both are deeply emotional for the individuals involved much like a religious epiphany. Some could view this film as dull or boring because there's a lot of talk in it for a film that's sole purpose seems to be to have a kick ass car chase, but if car chases are to be considered religious epiphanies in this universe than it makes sense why there would be some build-up. Tarantino doesn't seem to strain too hard to make his dialogue "hip" in this, which might take some people off guard. Well, in the beginning with the first batch of girls, he seemed to strain, but after that part, it felt surprisingly natural. Sure, the dialogue is probably Tarantino's fantasy of what girls talk about when there's no guys around, but it's still refreshing to see him not trying too hard to impress his audience with "cool" dialogue. The first half with the first batch of girls feels like a totally different animal from the second half with the second batch of girls. It's going for a smutty feel, almost like a fully-clothed porno, but fails to titillate since the actresses aren't particularly good or attractive. Quentin Tarantino's cameo role is surprisingly not as horrible as you would expect given that his cameo role in Pulp Fiction almost completely ruined that movie. The whole love story with Jungle Julia and some record producer(not totally sure) through text-messaging was easily the dumbest portion of the film and I'd imagined wasn't given any focus in the Grindhouse cut because of it's stupidity. This part with the first batch is still watchable despite it's flaws especially since Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike, who is charmingly creepy and sadistic, is given more focus in this portion. The second part is easily the better of the two since it's batch of actresses can act and are actually attractive. It's kind of amazing how Tarantino can make a bunch of girls just talking about nothing much actually compelling. It's easy to see how some didn't take to liking this film, but I found it invigorating. The role reversal near the end was relatively awkward since it happened so quickly. It's surprising to find Stuntman Mike a sympathetic character through this portion of the film given his actions. The end's apparent cheesy punching and kicking was off-putting because the rest of this portion was relatively grounded. Other than that, I highly recommend.
***1/2 out of ****