Jackie Brown ★★★★★

Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino's third film and finds success in new ways while using the old noir tropes of femme fatale, desperation, and violence. Pam Greer plays the title character as a flight attendant who moon lights as a money trafficker for her boss Ordell Roby (Samuel L. Jackson). She's caught in a sting with ATF and the FBI and that sets up the circumstances for her to make off with half a million dollars fooling her boss and the federal authorities all together. It's a great film as it pays multiple odes to 1970's music, clothes, colors, but situationed in a 90's world. The soundtrack is excellent with multiple noteworthy 70's R&B groups like the Supremes and Delfonics. There is a noticeable improvement or vision by Tarantino with his camera work, using it much more effectively as a storytelling technique. Scenes that come to mind are when Beaumont is about to get into the trunk to be murdered, the trunk almost acts as a character with the camera shooting outwards. Ordell's apartment is shot so that you feel you are sitting in the room with everyone, it feels cramped like the apartment in reality would feel. Everything down to the constant cigarette smoking, shopping malls, and abundance of guns that reeks of a world that is so close to being tangible. Bridget Fonda plays a pot smoking surfer girlfriend of Ordell who at every turn tries to manipulate his business with an old timer associate played by Robert De Niro. She plays an irritating supporting role that is very effective in causing her own demise.  De Niro almost seems out of place but as always he melts into character as Louis, as someone who has lost a touch being an older bank robber recently paroled.

Samuel L. Jackson does a wonderful job again in his 2nd film with Quentin Tarantino as Ordell. Ordell is a man who wants people to know what kind of a big shot he is, talking about selling all kinds of guns to the customers he consequently deals to. This is a great comment on the availability and normalcy of gun access in the United States despite how dangerous and violent they can ultimately be. Robert Forster plays Max Cherry the bail bondsman Ordell asks to bail Jackie out of jail, all with plans to murder her so she doesn't name him to ATF and FBI. Jackie able to foresee this, turns the situation to her advantage as we learn Cherry lends her the gun she pulls on Ordell. From here the film's culmination is setup, as we see a character willing to risk what they have just for a chance to get out. In many ways this film is very much about the American Dream and how desperate some are to achieve it, regardless of cost. Forster really adds a charm as Cherry, he's a man who is morally kind of grey who's really a good guy but helping Jackie elude the feds with Ordell's money. He doesn't take any money other than the 10%, and he lets a woman he loves go even being offered a trip to Madrid with her. It's another very simple story told elegantly by Tarantino, multi layered and bittersweet. It is one of my favorite films of his because it is so deftly done and handled, there is a real intimacy felt that doesn't quite come across his other work.

Pulp Fiction (1994) ★★★★★

Pulp Fiction is a neo-noir series of vignettes told within 48 hours of each other placed in a non-linear format. Again dealing with a corps of professional criminals and the associates they interact with, Tarantino weaves a kaleidoscopic narrative full of impending consequence and reaction. Sprinkled in humor as seen in the quick backstory featuring Christopher Walken as to how Bud (Bruce Willis) came by his father's watch. This is an improvement in many ways over his previous work 1992's Reservoir Dogs, characters branching out under Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) as the criminal protagonist. Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta both play hitmen associates of Wallace who open the film by killing three targets. Another improvement is in the varied and witty dialogue written by Tarantino, They make their reappearance in the final part of the film where they have to clean up a very bloody car, and run into Tarantino's character Jimmie, needing his house to regroup and park the obvious problem. Travolta's character is asked by Wallace to take his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out and look after her while he is out of town. They have a nice time, they go out and dancing, and Mia mistakenly snorts too much heroin. Hilarity ensues and Travolta has to bring her back to life with an adrenaline shot to the heart. Done poorly this almost sounds comical but it is deftly handled by Tarantino through great cinematography, editing, and scene placement. Watching the film in it's entirety a few times you get the appreciation of how Tarantino knew how he was going to piece all of the scenes together in their non-linear format. 

The pace of Pulp Fiction moves along nicely and the editing greatly enhances this feeling with the screenplay keeping the viewer's attention. There isn't much to talk about because the enjoyment of watching the film really is in watching it. It's colorful, and well acted and has great, smart, witty dialogue that puts life into the scenes. Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames have a great moment of perspective despite one of them being raped. Samuel L. Jackson gives a great performance and demands your attention with every scene he is apart of. He starts and ends the film with memorable and impressive monologues and is one of the more quotable Tarantino characters. Tarantino has also been credited with resuscitating John Travolta's career with this film as he was really not working before he was given a chance in this film. Pulp Fiction is a great film that cleverly and intelligently crafts it's story with style and taste and is all about how it is, not necessarily what it is. Because on the surface it's another simple story, slightly more complex than Tarantino's last picture, woven in a way that demands and keeps your interest all the way through.  

Reservoir Dogs (1992) ★★★★★

Reservoir Dogs follows the members of a local criminal group who've just robbed a jewelry store and follows the aftermath and consequences of the botched operation. This is Quentin Tarantino's first film and is an impressive achievement regardless of who's production it is. There are tropes of noir, gangster, and some touches of pop culture dialogue that steadily move the film along. An incredible cast brings the script to life with attitude, panic, and paranoia. Tim Roth playing Mr. Orange is an undercover police officer, a fact unknown until the end of the picture, is shot in the robbery attempt, and spends most of the film writhing in pain on a cement floor. The panic and fear set in his eyes as he is riding to the warehouse, is awesome and unsettling. As we are introduced to more and more of the crew, they all have a different version of events of the botched robbery. Mr. Pink played by Steve Buscemi shoots his way out of the crime scene, wildly and recklessly firing, The cops that pursue act in a similar fashion. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) shows up and steals nearly every scene he is in even with the impressive Buscemi, Keitel, and Roth. Cousin Eddie (Chris Penn) meets the group at the warehouse trying to pinpoint the police informant. Paranoia ensues as everyone devolves into a shouting match mania with loaded guns. Mr. White (Keitel) keeps pushing for a doctor to come help Orange unknowing he's the culprit they are looking for. He relies on his instincts throughout because without them, where is he? Pink is the only one safely betting on his paranoia proving the old adage just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you. 

 

Reservoir Dogs does an excellent job presenting a very basic and simple premise and allowing the screenplay, acting, and camera tell the story. It flashes back and forth telling each man's story of how he came to be involved in the caper. The tone and atmosphere is almost completely reliant on the written word and the great acting bringing it to life. Long shots that keep your attention and the performances keep you on edge, all of this without a score or soundtrack. Michael Madsen's scene with the kidnapped Police Officer comes to mind, as the entire thing is held together by every movement, gesture, and knowledge from the audience of what is coming. Blonde is a psychopath and enjoys every moment of torturing the officer all the while dancing to the sound of 70's radio. It doesn't matter if he has information that could help them or not, he wants to hurt this man. But like any great film what makes it special is the action on the screen, interaction between characters, and immersion into a world that either is or isn't our own, a vision. Tarantino clearly from the start has films he borrows from, but in his execution he makes it his own.

Orange saves the life of the Police Officer only for him to be murdered moments later as we learn what has been suspected by Pink since the beginning. This successfully allows Tarantino to control how we feel about what we are seeing in the early parts of the plot, to just experience what we are seeing without making judgements of right and wrong or good and bad. This is a world of pure survival. We follow Orange through his infiltration into the criminal group leading up to the jewelry heist. Despite the high tension and rough dialogue the film does an excellent job of sprinkling in humor and pop culture topics that make it relevant even 23 years after it's release. This was the start of Tarantino films commanding attention from the best actors in the industry which of course also is still true. Reservoir Dogs is stylishly put together and filmed without losing any of the substance of the more serious moments that move the plot forward. There is a love of cinema and film so apparent in this wonderful director's repertoire. A great first attempt for Quentin Tarantino who's movie still keeps audiences captivated.