Django Unchained was the non-sequel/reboot movie I was most looking forward to in 2012. Quentin Tarantino’s track record is truly something to behold, and the concept of a freed slave taking revenge on his former captors was perfectly pulpy. Thankfully, that potential is fully realized in a film that will go down as one of Tarantino’s best.

Django Unchained opens with Dr. King Schultz (played by Inglorious Basterds alum Christoph Waltz) freeing the eponymous Django (played by Jamie Foxx) from captivity under the assumption that he would be able to point out certain men with bounties on their heads.

He can and does, of course, and decides that killing slavers and criminals for money wouldn’t be the worst way to celebrate being a free man, but there’s something more specific he desires: to see his wife again, who was sold at an auction to a man named Calvin Candie (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), owner of the slave plantation Candieland.

Like most Tarantino films, Django is a deft balance of levity and gravitas. It’s often hilarious, with some badass one-liners and semi-Seinfeldian conversations, but it also demonstrates the horrors of slavery and the moral treachery of that period of American history. The movie makes light of many things, but slavery is not one of them.

The violence in the film is also nearly on par with his previous works, particularly Reservoir Dogs and Inglorious Basterds. Django and Dr. Schultz kill a lot of people throughout the movie, but it never feels like too much. Our protagonists only kill bad men because of the atrocities they commit; the money is just a bonus to them for delivering retribution. Django tends to let his rage take the better of him on occasion, but it’s justified within the context of the film.

While Django and Schultz are excellently acted, DiCaprio steals the show as Candie, whose menace is palpable in each of his scenes. His charisma transitions to deviousness at the blink of an eye, and as a result, he’s one of the most captivating characters in cinema this year.

The final major character is Stephen (played by Samuel L. Jackson), the head slave at Candieland, whose influence is comparable to Calvin’s when he’s away. Similar to Candie, he constantly straddles the line from hilarious and charismatic to overwhelmingly furious.

While the film’s running time is huge, and there’s some dark subject matter, Django Unchained is consistently entertaining. It feels like a movie where nothing was sacrificed; the snappy, Tarantino dialogue exists in tandem with scenes where people die brutally, and the balance works toward a singular goal, which is to ensure that the viewer is absolutely never bored.

The film’s visual style is very much Western-inspired, but the varied locales break the tedium that that genre often falls into. Django and Schultz travel across snow-capped mountains and forests to classic Western towns, properly equipped with saloons and deputies and sheriffs. Even Candieland, which is very clearly arid, still has its fair share of flora that spots the landscape and adds some variety.

As is expected with Tarantino movies, the soundtrack is impeccable, containing original songs by Ennio Morricone, John Legend, Rick Ross, and Luis Bacalov, all of which punctuate the film’s many great moments with panache. The sound quality is excellent, lines are delivered perfectly, and the many weapons wielded by our bounty-hunting heroes sound appropriately powerful.

In just about every respect, Django Unchained is outstanding. It’s easily among my favorite films of the year and of Tarantino’s selection, and if you can handle the subject matter and unbelievable violence, it’s a film that deserves to be seen.