Jackie Brown & Inglourious Basterds

I watched Jackie Brown for the first time, the third film by Quentin Tarantino, and I was blown away. I had always put off watching it cuz, you know, it wasn't Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction - and it came out before I was able to watch and appreciate those other two gems, so I wasn't running out to see it like I was when the Kill Bill movies came out, but those two are less movies than exercises, Quentin popping a boner on set with Uma Thurman while people get buried alive, decapitated, whatever. They were good, not classics, as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were.

But Jackie Brown. Man oh man, that Jackie Brown. It may be his best movie. It gets the least buzz, the least attention. Why? This damned movie is a real damned movie. No tricks. Just good direction, real dialogue (not self indulgent!), and a cast of characters so well conceived and so well executed by the group of actors assembled that it really blew my mind.

The plot is straightforward (enough: it unfolds in real time!) though there are twists and turns and slights of hand. But the plot is not where it's at. The characters. The world that Tarantino creates is his own and it's a real one, too. It's not the world we live in, maybe, but it is definitely a world we could live in, or, more accurately, this is definitely the world where these people live and it's a better world than the ones usually depicted in other movies, especially other crime films.

I could go on and on - so I will! No, I won't. Just go and see what is probably, shot by shot, line by line, Quentin Tarantino's best film. It's not as important or uniquely enjoyable as Pulp Fiction is (still gotta be my fav) but between QT's script and direction, and Sam Jackson's villain, Robert Fortser's miraculous performance as a somewhat unlikely hero, Bob DeNiro's stoner criminal, Chris Tucker's dumb arms dealer, and, of course, Pam Grier as Jackie Brown herself, this movie is fucking ridiculous. I'm leaving things out! All you need to know is that a conversation about the Delfonics broke my heart. If that happens, you know you're watching a great movie.

QUICK WORD: thought Inglourious Basterds was kick ass. Not what I was expecting, which was real nice. Unique, wonderful little two hour and 45 minute film. Great soundtrack, dialogue, and the performance from Christopher Waltz is fucking mind blowing. Definitely worthy of Tarantino, better than Kill Bills, not the others though.