Neo-sploitation

Quentin Tarantino is easily my favorite director, but that's something a lot of people would say. One of the themes in his constant stream of homage, is a nod to the exploitation films of the 70's, he's always incorporating elements from asian kung-fu flicks, blacksploitation, and in general, the more gritty, grindhouse style film of that era. While this was fairly unique to him, the work of his cohort, Robert Rodriguez in works like Machete, along other works like House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects and more recently Drive Angry and Hobo With a Shotgun, bring this bloody, graphic, overtly sexual, in your face, and incredibly absurd to a point that it is beginning to be it's own genre, though an obscure one.

Personally I like it a lot. I know some people will say I'm going to hell for that, but there's something strangely endearing about a horribly graphic, cheesy, overdone piece of crap that allows you to relax. People work too hard having opinions about entertainment.

I return to Bazan when it comes to how I read a film, I firmly believe that as a film plays itself out, you are hearing the voice of the director, and the directors of these exploitive cheeseballs are absurdist comedians with dark streaks. There is almost a sense in which they know, that the audience will fear to look on, but dare not look away. These are not flops, they are not supposed to be technical masterpieces. They are the stunts of the film genre, they are engineered car crashes. They are parodies of the idea of making a film that has any shred of authenticity, and for that I applaud them.