Nerd Pride Radio

I watched Jackie Brown this last week. Did you? Let's get into it!

Note: This thread is to discuss heist movies that are currently streaming and that, hopefully, you've recently watched-- like in the last six months or so. If you haven't watched it, or don't remember it really, really well- please go rewatch it and join the discussion. If you have seen it- let's get into it!

I've only seen this movie once- and it was probably around 1998 or so when it came out on video. At the time, I remembered that we were all supposed to really like Tarantino because he was coming off Pulp Fiction. And I had seen Reservoir Dogs before I knew who he was and LOVED that movie. So I remember watching this movie and raving about how great it was. And I want to say I've probably tempered that a bit, but kept tepidly raving about it since then.

And now I've watched it a second time.

...

Um, yeah. That was a good movie.

A solid movie.

...

Yeah.

So here's the thing- on a second viewing, I found this movie to be pretty disappointing, because I'm a big fan of Tarantino. But the dialogue wasn't up to par with his other movies (this is definitely in the Kill Bill level of dialogue), and it was really slow. And I get that Tarantino movies are always slow at parts and weirdly paced, and normally I'm okay with that. But this one didn't seem like that pacing had a purpose like it did in Inglorious Basterds or Hateful Eight. This movie seemed like it was slow out of self-indulgence, and to just get us to the final money drop scene.

And that scene was great, right? The last act of this movie was fucking amazing and I loved every single second of it. Tarantino at his finest.

But it seemed like the entire beginning of the movie was just plodding a little aimlessly to get us to that final act. All the stuff in the first half of the movie felt purposeless even though I knew it wasn't. Which is a shame because all the performances were fucking great. Sam Jackson is at the top of his game here. Pam Grier is surprisingly good and nuanced as Jackie Brown. I love the character of Max Cherry and how Robert Forster gave a pitch perfect stick-up-the-butt performance. I even liked Chris Tucker for the short time he was in it. The only fall off for me was Briget Fonda and Robert DeNiro who were muttering through their dialogue as the stoners for the first 90 minutes of the movie, then finally start giving life to the characters in the final act (but a little too late for my tastes).

I did not like Jackie Brown the first time I saw it. I liked it a lot this time. Solid film. I thought all the acting was wonderful, especially Pam Grier. I liked the Max Cherry character a lot. And unlike Kyle, I thought DeNiro's aging stoner thug was really solid. It was such a different role for DeNiro, which made it jarring, but he played it to the hilt, and it reminded me of what a versatile actor he is.

I was bothered by the dialogue... especially Sam Jackson's dialogue. It felt like everything he said was intentionally labored exposition. Like, if this was a comic book, 90% of the words that came out of his mouth should have been thought bubbles, but instead, this hard-ass, no-nonsense gangster spills every single emotion and motivation that passes through his skull. It seemed wrong. Plus, every time he uses the N-word (which is a lot), all I can picture is Tarantino gleefully saying the words out loud as he writes them down. Man, he loves that word almost as much as he loves Uma Thurman's feet.

And I'm totally with Kyle that the weird Tarantino pacing just didn't work for me here. Most jarring was the scene of Jackie running panicked through the mall looking for the feds. That scene went on FOREVER. And I get his pacing thing. He drags out a moment to let the emotion sink in. He makes you stew in it until it seeps into you and you're right there with the characters on the edge of your seat (never better done than Christoph Waltz's infamous milk scene). But here... I was only confused. Her panic was an act, but we didn't know why. Tarantino was dragging it out, because the end of this scene is the huge reveal where all the pieces and parts start to come together, but dragging it out didn't heighten the reveal for me, because I had no clue what was going on. It just annoyed me.

Having said that, yeah, it felt very amateurish (for a QT film), but I still really enjoyed it. I liked the heist. I liked Jackie. I was solidly rooting for her every step of the way. I loved the happy ending, and the bittersweet resolution of her involvement with Max.

And Max. I didn't get his character at first. I thought he was just a plot point. His deadpan Joe Friday act really threw me. But by the end, it turns out that even through that mostly emotionless performance, Max was the only person in the film with an actual character arc. The fact that Robert Forster could do so much with such a subtle performance is really cool.

Good film.

Agree that Michael Keaton, per usual, kicks ass.