With just four films to his name, Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino is one of Hollywood's most respected and controversial directors. As critics squared off in opposite corners over his latest, ultraviolent martial-arts bloodbath Kill Bill Vol. 1, a funny thing happened: Both fans and detractors used strikingly similar language to describe the film, likening it to depraved sexual acts.

The most scathing denunciation came from San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle, who ended his blistering review with the words: “Let's just call it pornography. And let's just admit it's indefensible.” A similarly dismissive note was struck by atheist critic Mary Ann Johanson of FlickFilosopher.com, who derisively and elaborately compared Tarantino's film to an act of public self-abuse.

Strangely, many of the film's strongest advocates seemed to agree. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone enthusiastically called the film “an act of indecent exposure,” rhapsodizing in unprintable language about Tarantino as a “flasher” and about the experience of seeing the film being reminiscent of going to an adult theater. Waxing Freudian, Victoria Alexander of Films In Review raved: “Awesome! Breathtaking! Tarantino shows off his libido and his id.” She went on, “All the women are seething with anger. It is female cruelty as art form. The women in Kill Bill embody my favorite Hindu goddess — who graces my desk — Kali The Destroyer.”

Underground film writer “Moriarty” of Ain't It Cool News matched Rolling Stone's crudeness, similarly likening the film to an act of indecent exposure before describing it as “a love letter from Quentin Tarantino to Quentin Tarantino.”

Boston Globe critic Wesley Morris calls Tarantino “the movies’ sadist laureate. His brand of violence has the uncanny ability to seduce without desensitizing you to pain.”

Yikes. With friends like these, who needs to listen to Tarantino's enemies?