Non-fiction: Review of Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino has repeated often enough that his film-making days are essentially behind him, and that he wants to start devoting time to other projects. Good on his word, he has produced a novelization of his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and in 2022 his first piece of non-fiction, Cinema Speculation. Filled with epic dialogue, blood splatter, and norm-challenging scenes—at least proverbially? Let's see.

Cinema Speculation is three things: a bit of indirect biography, a bit of film history (primarily Hollywood 1950-80), but mostly analysis/critique of the films Tarantino considers critical from the 70s—Bullitt, The Getaway, Dirty Harry, Deliverance, Rocky, and Taxi Driver among them. It's a pet project as only somebody like Tarantino could get away with.

And it's well written. The voice/tone viewers are familiar with in Tarantino's films comes across in the book—not precisely in suave one-liners or weighted dialogue, rather in the mindset which believes such dialogue is critical to a film's success. Tarantino's spirit is fully alive on the page even if it's being applied in a different fashion.

Tarantino likewise possesses a near encyclopedic knowledge of films, directors, producers, cinematographers, script writers, actors and actresses, and for everything from blockbuster to budget films. Three-quarters of the names dropped were unknown to me. Granted I am not a cinephile, nevertheless the references go a long way toward legitimizing the content.

Without going out of his way (as a lot of modern culture is not wont to do), Tarantino integrates discussion on race. From audiences to plots, actors to specific scenes, Tarantino describes how black America shaped his own experiences in film, as well as specific scenes, scripts, and circumstances in films—a behind-the-scenes look that tears down walls rather than building them in the name of race or identity. While such perspectives should be the norm, it is, in fact, refreshing.

In the end, Cinema Speculation is a vehicle for opinion, a loosely organized ramble. It is not academic criticism/analysis, rather critique/analysis informed by ingesting thousands of films, creating and directing films, writing scripts, working with actors and actresses, and all sorts of other hands-on Hollywood experience. Take that as you will. It assumes that viewers who appreciate Tarantino's films will likewise appreciate Tarantino's opinions and discussion of other director's films, specifically the films that were influential in the making of his own career. To be 100% clear, the book is not a discussion of his own filmography, rather other films. If you're looking for a breakdown of Django: Unchained, Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Basterds, etc., look elsewhere.