Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jackie Brown (1997)
– I’ve long considered this my least favorite Quentin Tarantino movie, in part
because it’s the least flashy in his oeuvre.
But as I get older I’m looking at the film differently, and I think it’s
actually one of his better films because
of its aesthetic restraint. Adapted from
an Elmore Leonard novel (the only entry in Tarantino’s filmography not based on
an original screenplay), Jackie Brown
stars Pam Grier as the eponymous stewardess who schemes with bail bondsman Max
Cherry (Robert Forster) and the ATF to take down kingpin Ordell Robbie (Samuel
L. Jackson). The three leads are all in
fine form – Grier is believable as the kick-ass protagonist, Forster plays
romantic but subdued, and Jackson is pitch-perfect as the villain – but the
highlight here is how well Tarantino makes his homage to the blaxploitation
genre without being consumed by it.
Tarantino has had a difficult relationship with homage, with some “loving
references” feeling a lot like plagiarism (the burial of The Bride in Kill Bill, Vol. 2, for example), but
here he seems tapped into the feeling of a blaxploitation movie (and even, with
Grier and Sid Haig, some of the familiar faces) without sacrificing
watchability for self-indulgence. The
film is smart and spirited, witty without being too wild. The smaller parts from the ensemble cast –
which includes Robert DeNiro, Bridget Fonda, and Michael Keaton – make this
movie feel quite full, but it’s a fullness that gives the film depth and relevance. Rather than exist just as an homage, Jackie Brown is one of Tarantino’s more
accomplished films, perhaps out of place in an otherwise exhaustively exuberant
catalogue, but at the same time perhaps the most mature (in sensibility, not in
rating) of his films.
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004)
Death Proof (2007)
– Tarantino recently noted that he wants Death
Proof to be regarded as his worst film, which prompted me to revisit it. Originally part of the double-feature
experiment Grindhouse with Robert
Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, Death Proof stars Kurt Russell as
Stuntman Mike, a serial murderer who victimizes two groups of women with his invincible
stunt car. The first group (including
Sydney Poitier and Vanessa Ferlito) succumbs to Mike’s car and the objectifying
male gaze of the camera; this is Tarantino at his most exploitive, and it seems
that the lusty way he films these women is less an homage to the genre of female
revenge film and more a personal fetish given celluloid life. Though Russell is better and more badass in
this first half, the problematic treatment of women borders on deplorable. The second half attempts to redeem these sins,
with another group of women (including Rosario Dawson, stuntwoman Zoë Bell as
herself, and Tracie Thoms, who’s like a cross between Wanda Sykes and Samuel L.
Jackson) taking on the task of revenge.
This group is more fun, in part because we spend more time with them and
know them better, but that attention leaves Russell by the wayside, giving the
film a very uneven feeling. Tarantino’s
dialogue is punchy, but everyone talks like everyone else. The result is a film that on the surface is
peppy and poppy in the “grindhouse” tradition, but if you look deeper the film
is fraught with problems – of representation, of balance, of identity. I enjoyed the film enthusiastically as a high
schooler, but age has somewhat cooled me on this movie; if it ends up being the
worst Tarantino film, I can live with that.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Be sure to check back later this month for a full review of Django Unchained, but for now that does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” Between finals week and The Dark Knight Rises on DVD tomorrow, I’m gonna be pretty busy, but next Monday we’ll have a look at a few movies that wrestle with sanity (opportune timing for those of us going crazy for finals).
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