Django Unchained

The story of two bounty hunters, an ex-slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) and the German Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz), Django Unchained is not for those with weak stomachs. In classic Quentin Tarantino fashion, Django marries heavy gore with his encyclopedic cinematic knowledge—in this case, of Spaghetti Westerns. A search for Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), takes the pair through Mississippi to a plantation run by the hateful Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). With snappy dialogue and a superlative cast (particularly Waltz’s dry wit and DiCaprio’s sliminess), Django zips along at a good pace, but has a couple finales before it actually ends, its denouement a series of violent shoot-outs. By portraying oppressors as imbeciles and giving power to the oppressed, Django re-works history into ass-kicking entertainment, much like Inglourious Basterds. -Molly Segal