Work is going just fine. I seem to have settled nicely into a routine, at least so far. I’ve been going to bed between ten and eleven, and it has been quite an adjustment. After not having worked for a while, going there every day makes damn sure I’m tired so getting to sleep is not a problem. Hell, Friday morning I woke up ten minutes before the alarm. How’s that for weird?

The difficult part comes with the weekend. Staying up too late makes sure I can’t get to sleep early enough to get up nicely with the alarm. I suppose I shouldn’t complain. This is what most people deal with all the time. After being unemployed for a good while however, it makes coming back to work quite an adjustment!

Part of what might make this weekend adjustment difficult is my and Jessica’s watching Kill Bill, Volume 1 on Saturday night. That itself is no big deal, except we started at around midnight and I was already very tired. I feared Tarantino’s popularity would adversely affect his movies. After seeing this film, I realise I shouldn’t have worried in the least. The film is chock-full of all the signature Tarantino weirdness I’ve come to enjoy. If I’ve got a complaint about the film, it’s that Tarantino’s trying his hand at directing an action film. Believe me, I’ve got no problem with action movies, but one of the joys of his films is the characters. Jam a film with all sorts of action, and our learning about the characters will have to take a back seat. Still, it’s a great film and I’m really looking forward to seeing volume two.

Tarantino’s style is an eclectic mix of many genres. If he’s original, it’s all in how he takes all sorts of existing styles and combines them. There are so many tributes to other films in Kill Bill, it’s nearly ridiculous. The only thing is you probably won’t recognise most of them as the films he borrows from are hardly mainstream. I have no problem with any of it. Entertain me and it’s all good.

That’s not to say the film isn’t without faults however. The only one continuity gaffe that distracted me enough to pull me out of the film was done for composition, but it’s so damn obvious. Have a look at the cropped screen capture above. Uma Thurman is standing there holding the knife and Ambrosia Kelley stands in the background looking cute in her pink sweater. Kelley is eight but her character is four. It’s a bit of a stretch but it’s okay. What isn’t okay is she looks pretty damn tall, doesn’t she?

After the shot above, Thurman turns to look at Kelley and we see Thurman’s point of view (at right). Notice anything incongruous? She’s suddenly a little girl again after being a giant in the previous shot. If you’re not seeing it, compare her height to the telephone on the wall to the left of the doorway she’s standing in. I fully expect things will be moved around to result in more pleasing composition, but moving things around between shots is going to draw a lot of attention to itself. It’s even worse because the two shots above are inter-cut a few times.

Cropped Kill Bill, Vol. 1 screen grabs ©2003 Miramax Film Corporation