4 gibbles out of 5

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Y’know, it’s sort of a mess, but Pulp Fiction is still an entirely wild and original watch, even years later, having influenced a super-obnoxious genre of over-clever talky actiony flicks. Similar to the Die Hard genre, and how the movie that started it all still towers over its imitators even at 20 years old.

Anyhow, Pulp Fiction, on this re-watch in 2009, is a lot less violent than I remember. It still has this odd, surreal almost Lynchian touch to it that I don’t think is allowed full breadth in Tarantino’s other works (although perhaps that was due to writing partner Roger Avary), and the editing is a lot choppier than I would’ve realized back in ’94. But what remains is this freshness.

As Siskel & Ebert pointed out in their review of the movie (included on the bonus features of the 2-disc edition), Tarantino seems to enjoy showing the pieces of common films that would normally be left on the editing floor – the burger conversations, the foot rub conversations. And it works perfectly in this film, dragging in spots that seem to allow you to sink into the characters rather than bore you. Again, not all is perfect, but the title is exactly what’s on display here, and Pulp Fiction has proven absolutely deserving of the attention it allotted its director.