The Best Quentin Tarantino Characters, From ‘Pulp Fiction’ to ‘Kill Bill’

variety.com:

Variety has selected Tarantino’s best onscreen characters. In no particular order… Kurt Russell has always been an extraordinarily versatile actor, but seldom has that versatility been exploited so fully in a single role than as Stuntman Mike in “Death Proof.” As his namesake implies, the stunt man has cultivated a twisted fetish from his chosen vocation by menacing and eventually murdering young women with his 1970s Chevrolet Nova.

But we also get to see him as a goofy boomer among millennials, chowing hungrily down on nachos; a seductive gentleman caller preying upon a young woman’s insecurities to score a free lap dance; a skilled driver initially outmaneuvering the stunt women he targets for his next collision; and then, an injured, cowering mess tearfully apologizing for trying to kill them.

The role requires a complete panorama of reactions, anchored by a toughness and capability that makes his convincingly frightening, and Russell delivers the goods, allowing the audience to delight in watching a sick-minded bully get his comeuppance. — TG Tarantino had shepherded Leonardo DiCaprio to some of his career-best performances, but the arguable best of the best of those is as Calvin Candie in “Django Unchained.” He is the white whale (so to speak) who Django must conquer in order to get back his beloved Broomhilda, and DiCaprio makes him exactly as oily, entitled, menacing, and ultimately inhuman as the character needs to be in order to keep audiences holding their breath.

Candie’s alternate joy and indifference in his introductory scene, as we watch two Black men fight each other to the death for his amusement, tells us all we need to know; his subsequent execution of a runaway slave further unsettles us while.