Pulp Fiction (1994)

(L.A.; contemporary)

‘Pulp Fiction’ had been a long time glaring hole in my film literacy, and I take my film literacy seriously. For some time friends of mine have been after me to see it and I finally heeded their council. Perhaps no film from the 1990’s has had, or will have as much of an effect on American cinema as ‘Pulp Fiction’, both in matters of style and technique, as well as in the careers it revitalized, most notably John Travolta’s. The film has both great intensity (particularly in the Bruce Willis storyline), and a dark sense of humor whose odd rhythms reach there most enjoyable in its final third. While the inspiration comes from the ’trash’ films of the 1970’s, it is elevated into high art here by the execution. Butch Coolidge’s obsession with his fathers watch might seem like a somewhat contrived plot device to get him into unnecessary danger, but here it completely works and takes the audience into disturbing directions which to me at least were unpredictable. Tarantino is the great auteur of “Pulp Fiction“ and I think I owe it to myself to see more of his work.