First Reactions to Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’

Reviews of Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” are embargoed until December 21, but with year-end list and poll-voting season hard upon us, the movie has already screened for many critics, and reactions are starting to leak out over Twitter. A small handful of early viewers have reported walking out — the version currently screening is the 175-minute “roadshow” cut with intermission, which seems to provide a convenient exit point — but of those who stayed, the reactions are almost uniformly positive, and often raves. (I’m counting subtweets and those that cheekily refer to the movie as
“[embargoed],” but not collecting them here, since even if it’s fairly clear from context what movie is being referenced, it’s not a dead certainty.) We’ll see this week how “The Hateful Eight” fares with the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who are voting on their awards in the next few days, but it sounds as if individually, if not necessarily collectively, plenty of their members are over the moon.

Tarantino sets up characters and stakes in post-Civil-War race drama @thehatefuleight, a languorously intense 70 mm cinephile’s fantasy.

— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) December 2, 2015

My HATEFUL Take: I freakin’ love this movie. Agatha Christie’s DEATH PROOF in the Old West. I wish it were an hour longer.

— Jordan Hoffman (@jhoffman) December 2, 2015

THE HATEFUL EIGHT is like The Thing took the form of an early John Ford movie & holy hell is it great. Sam L. Jackson = a national treasure.

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) December 2, 2015

The photography is unreal. Your eye will explore every inch of the frame. Expert staging, blocking and lighting throughout.

— Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) November 30, 2015

Jennifer Jason Leigh is absolute dynamite in THE HATEFUL EIGHT. And Walton Goggins *almost* steals the show from Samuel L. Jackson. Almost.

— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) December 2, 2015

We can talk about ‘Hateful Eight’ now? Ok good. Loved everything about it. QT at his most indulgent. Sam Jackson is terrific.

— Mike Sampson (@mjsamps) December 2, 2015

THE HATEFUL EIGHT is dark, bloody and diabolically funny. If you thought the Crazy 88s were crazy, they got nothing on these eight. So great

— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) December 2, 2015

That “great vengeance and furious anger” monologue now has a glorious sequel.

— erickohn (@erickohn) December 1, 2015

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