One of the greatest crime films

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2013)

Reportedly, Elmore Leonard read the Tarantino-penned script of Jackie Brown and proclaimed it the best screenplay he'd ever read. This wasn't hyperbole - watching Jackie Brown is watching dialogue glide right off the page onto the screen in a fashion you don't often get to see. Jackie Brown is the ultimate writer's film, an action film where the dialogue is the action.
Tarantino balances the film's narrative complexity with genuine emotional involvement and (shock) a believable love story and the result is so brilliant it seems almost effortless. Perhaps this is why people consistently rate Jackie Brown below many of his other films. It all looks a little too easy, a little too cool.
Well, it's my feeling that this film represented the peak of Tarantino's monopoly on 'cool' in films, and that his output post Brown has been a constant battle to maintain that status or to win it back. Tarantino has said he would never adapt another film. I think that's too bad, as this film represents what I believe is the greatest film to Tarantino's credit. Jackie Brown is fantastic cinema told with balls to the wall confidence.