**** (Out of four)

Rating: 10/10 (6 May 1999)

This is filmmaking at its apex. Though I would hardly argue that this film is the greatest, which is what many IMDB users relate after they've just seen a movie they really like and then forget about once the next "Titanic" or "Matrix" hype machine bursts their way, I must say that "Pulp Fiction" added more to the cinematic lexicon more than any other film of the 90s. And who can argue with that? Indeed it is one of my favorites just for its adamant refusal to do things by-the-book, and many previous comments essay this film as a highly moral and spiritual piece--they couldn't be more right. When the film came out, a lot of the reviewers commented on its cinematic brand of hipness...Being hip is cool, but I wouldn't necessarily equate that with great movies--just look at "Men in Black", which was sorta fun but hardly the endurable piece of cinema that "Pulp Fiction" has become. So what sets it apart from the rest of the crowd? It's exactly this spirituality...watching the film, I remember being shocked and enlightened at the same time, being unbearably tensed up and utterly charmed and in agreement with this weird California former video clerk's world view. The film is a tour-de-force of the cinematic style; one of my favorite shots in the film seems to be a homage to both the fast-paced unbreaking style of Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby". It is the scene where Travolta crashes his Malibu into Eric Stoltz's front yard and brings the OD'ed Thurman inside his house. As Rosanna Arquette hurls invectives at the two, the camera (wonderful work by Andrez Sekula moves back and forth between Arquette and Travolta and Stoltz lurching over Thurman (that's the Scorsese part). Then, as Stoltz goes looking for the plunger, the camera follows him into a room, where it inexplicably stops at the doorway so as to impede a full sight of Stoltz, reminders of the scene where Polanski photographed Ruth Gordon in "Rosemary's Baby" by placing an obstruction between her and the camera so the audience would instinctively lurch their head to the side, making a hopeless attempt to see around the obstruction. Such a phrase can be used to describe "Pulp Fiction": most movies simply unfurl their stories at the audience. This movie subliminally makes you a part of the action. I recently had a semi-argument with a friend over the worth of this film over "Natural Born Killers". Now don't get me wrong, Oliver Stone is a powerful filmmaker, but his film banged you over the head incessantly with points like "I'm Going to Use my Artistic License to Satirize the Over-the-Top Violence of Popular Culture by Making a Movie Replete With...Over-the-Top Violence!" In the style of David Spade, "It's called hypocrisy, Oliver--check into it!" Anyways, I digress. Anybody who bad-mouths this movie indeed has no appreciation for cinema; sure, the film may have a goof or an errant philosophy somewhere , but Tarantino fulfilled any filmmaker's dream in revitalizing cinema. You can say that the film's tone didn't impress you, that its style wasn't to your taste...but you can't deny the artistry that went into it. Morality? For all of those who believe this film is an amoral travesty, I suggest you rent the family favorite "The Santa Clause" and count how many times Disney shamelessly milks its own products, or if God is mentioned even once in what is supposed to be a Christmas film. Or in ANY family film. What impressed me the most when I first saw "Pulp Fiction" was its inclusion of God at all, many Generation-X filmmakers (paging Kevin Smith?) are so agnostic in their beliefs that it was so refreshing to see one that painted divinity in such a positive light. You can have those other indie favorites "Chasing Amy" and "Good Will Hunting"(both starring those irritating crybabies Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), and if you like those cynical films which are basically reworkings of "oh-feel-sorry-for-me" melodramas of the late-40s reworked with equally irritating alternative rock (best summed up by the Smashing Pumpkins in a "Simpsons" episode: "All's we got is our millions of dollars, our legions of fans, and our youth."), then you can have them. Compare that to Jules' awakening ("I was just sitting here eating my muffin and drinking my coffee when I had what alcoholics refer to as 'a moment of clarity'.") and you'll see how Tarantino turned the mythic Gen-X stereotype on its head as well. "Pulp Fiction" is, in my opinion, the king of the indies and one of the best examples of cinematic craftsmanship ever.