Stuck in the middle with you

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2014)

Tarantino is one of my favorite directors, and he couldn't have landed a more powerful debut film than Reservoir Dogs. It must have been really exciting to see, in 1992, this new wonderful kind of filmmaking arise. The great thing about his movies is that they're always so fresh, so authentic. I've heard some people say he does nothing but plagiarize from the classics, I couldn't disagree more. Besides paying homage to his favorite movies and directors, he ends up subverting whatever contemporary notions we may have of movie-making, and creating something new out of it. He simply blows our mind with a totally unexpected script, characters, dialog and plot twists.
By the way, his bloody plot twists are the best (so are his long and genius dialogs). Like he answered as to why his movies always feature a great amount of graphic violence: "because it's so much fun!" Tarantino succeeds in casting nothing but a pack of great actors, something else to prove the quality of his work. Tim Roth gives one of the best monologue performances I've ever seen. Everyone else is just great, be it separate or together. One of the best moments is the initial scene, with that discussion over the meaning of "Like a Virgin", or the discussion about the assigned color names, just typical Tarantino. Also, the unexpected ending, I doubt people were accustomed to see that much blood in Hollywood flicks, maybe not since the 70's exploitations.
And if we pay enough attention, there's a "classical" feel to it, be it from the special "team" of con men put together to rob the jewelry store, or by Pam Grier being brought on during a conversation - and, of course, there's "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the 70's" radio we hear occasionally throughout the film. I'm always glad for the musical discoveries QT provides us in all of his movies. With Reservoir Dogs it's not different, one of the most iconic scenes is the one where Mr. Blonde tortures an unfortunate cop to the sound of "Stuck In The Middle With You."