What's not to like?

Django Unchained

Crit

A viewer leaving the theater ahead of me wondered aloud what topic Tarantino will tackle "in his third film." Her companion and I were both puzzled, until I realized that she meant the third of his social-conscience films: we've had the Holocaust and slavery, and the implication was (and I've seen this assumption in print, too) that there has to be a social-conscience trilogy, so we've got one more to come. Well, I wouldn't be surprised--the Spanish Inquisition? climate change? talking out loud in movie theaters?--but I also wouldn't assume that the Q man finds anything sacred in the number 3, or even that if he does, he's going to feel obliged to punch the same ticket again.

Frankly, while slavery is unquestionably a Bad Thing in the moral universe of this film, I doubt that the particular Bad Thing is of as much interest to the director as the trappings he gets to bring to bear on it. And damn, they're fine trappings--all his films are buddy movies to some extent, but I'm not sure even Jules and Vincent were as simpatico as Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) here. Lots of blood, some big explosions, but a surprising amount of love and tenderness. Which is, of course, why I keep saying "Nothing says Christmas like Tarantino."

Trailer

• Oblivion--No, not likely.