As a casual fan of Quentin Tarantino, I wanted to take a look at his newest film.

What’s It About? Eight strangers, each carrying baggage from the Civil War, hole up in a cabin together to escape a blizzard, and begin to discover that most of them have very good reasons to want to kill each other.

STRAIGHT UP: Too self-indulgent, despite its technical merits. 2/5

What I Liked

The entire cast – Great acting from everyone here, all else aside. Walton Goggins as Chris Mannix is the clear standout, but Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell are also noteworthy.

Beautifully shot – As expected, this film is on point visually, beginning with the opening shot, in which a looming statue of Christ grows smaller and smaller as our hate-filled travelers draw near.

Ultra violence – Blood and gore are on tap, and while Tarantino doesn’t dish it out as liberally as usual, it manages to be shocking and satisfying every time he does.

A different kind of animal – Too slow-paced and self-serving to be lumped in with the blockbusters, but too crude and cartoonish to be considered an art piece, there’s nothing else like The Hateful Eight in theaters right now.

What I Disliked

Self-indulgent – For all his strengths as a filmmaker, Tarantino has some obnoxious vices, and he over-indulges in them here to the delight of no one but himself. From the overlong exposition to the casual misogyny to the script loaded with his favorite racial epithet – it’s enough to make me wish Tarantino had someone to keep him in check.

Way too long – The Hateful Eight is 3 hours long and feels like every bit of it. There’s not so much going on that it couldn’t have been trimmed down to a more sensible running time.

A movie at cross purposes with itself – Too often, this film’s own sensibilities prevented its message from getting across. It tries to say something about race, then undercuts that with a joke like “darkies don’t like to be called n****rs anymore, they find it offensive” that makes all the troglodytes in the audience laugh. It aims to expose the cynical nature of people, but never presents its characters as anything but cynical. It offers witty dialogue, but drowns that in so much other talk. I could never engage with this film on the level I was expected to.

CLOSING THOUGHT: I think The Hateful Eight may be the purest expression yet of Tarantino’s ideals as a filmmaker – which may be precisely the reason why I dislike it. Tarantino has always had his vices, but I’ve been able to ignore them in more kinetic fare like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Placed under a microscope on a single set for three hours, though, these flaws obscure everything else, including themes and content that might have felt timely and relevant under different guidance. I suspect that some people may love this movie for the very same reasons that I do not – and more power to them – but in my book, this is no must-see.