Tarantino's Breakthrough

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2015)

Clarence (Christian Slater) marries call girl Alabama (Patricia Arquette), steals cocaine from her pimp (Gary Oldman), and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.
If you want to study the evolution of Quentin Tarantino, you have to start here. Plenty to take note of: the dialogue is dense, there are plenty of references to Sonny Chiba. Probably dozens of film references so obscure no viewer will ever find them.
Somehow this ended up in the hands of Tony Scott. Luckily it did. Not only is he a skilled action director, but he did very little to water down the elements Tarantino put in place. In many ways, this is just as much a Tarantino film as a Scott film.
And that impressive cast? Wow. Anybody who was anybody in the 1990s makes an appearance.