"I'm serious as a heart attack..."

Rating: 10/10 (23 August 2009)

Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino's best film. There is not a single note wrong here from beginning to end. Dogs was a rough start, Pulp was a crowd pleaser, but with Jackie Brown, there are characters who are more than pawns in a game of "Guess what movie I ripped off..."
The awesome cast is firing on all cylinders to give the movie a real backbone. Surprisingly only Robert De Niro's presence comes off out of place in his nearly wordless role.
The film works better on more levels than any other Tarantino. Why? Three main reasons;
He is working from a completely realized story from Elmore Leonard. Tarantino has never shown himself to be much with a singular story over 2 hours, Leonard's Rum Punch gave him a solid foundation to work from.
He is free of gimmicks dealing in black and white suits, glossy guns or samurai swords. There are almost no way to quantify his filmic references here, but they are all completely in sync with the story and characterizations, not for flamboyance. The story and characters rule here. What little violence there is in Jackie Brown, it actually has power and doesn't feel gleeful like in Pulp or Kill Bill.
Most importantly...
He is hopelessly in love with almost every character in this film and it feels as if he KNOWS each of these people. The personal touches for each of the players here are well done by the actors, but Tarantino simply worships them with his words, his camera and his soundtrack. This film could easily be called "Reverence."
More than 10 years on, Jackie Brown feels fresher and far more mature than a re-watch of his other films, which by comparison come off as wind up toys or forced. On the other hand, Jackie Brown is a true love song to Pam Grier, the 70s and Blaxploitation and movies in general.
But above all that, Jackie Brown is solid and just a damn good movie on any level. I doubt he'll ever make one as good. Few people could.