Rich, pulsing, dramatic, convincing, and archly fantastic, like the best of fiction films

Rating: 9/10 (26 February 2010)

Jackie Brown (1997)
Tarantino's films are so dependably well made--well written, acted, directed, filmed, and with great music--it's hard to not like them in the most sensual way, with our eyes and ears. Jackie Brown has everything going for it, including a straight up crime plot with some great, logical twists. The woman playing Jackie Brown is Pam Grier, the real deal, famous for early 1970s blaxploitation films, and of course included not only for her great presence, but for her ties to the scene the Tarantino was trying to recreate.
Then there is Robert Forster, as amazing as Samuel Jackson, and with a more difficult part (playing a bondsman who is lowkey and subtle, next to Jackson's bad guy cool guy gunrunner). The two cops (including Michael Keaton) are great, and Robert De Niro has a small, steady role as well. If there is any one weak actor it's Bridget Fonda, and her role is to be exactly the kind of shallow, selfish person she portrays, so maybe that works, too.
Does the movie transport you and sweep you in? Absolutely. Do you care about what happens to all these believable characters? Not entirely, but mostly. There is a sense of style of substance, of plot over character development here. And even the nature of the plot, mostly hinging on some money that has to exchange hands, is almost too simple for such a long movie.
Yet, some of the most delicious, moving moments are just when the camera lingers on someone's face, and a reaction is slowly coming out, and it takes so long you can't stand it. This is what makes great movies, and Tarantino really has a feel for how to make the scenario really get under your skin, not through shock (the violence here is mostly out of view) but through a manipulation of the medium, the photographer and editing. I think you could study Jackie Brown the way people study Pulp Fiction to see how a contemporary film can be made. Certainly the series of versions of the same scene in the clothing store near the end, each from a different viewpoint is textbook stuff. And effective.