Pulp Fiction

A word of caution to you squirmers: Pulp Fiction has a good amount of profane language, lewd subjects, drug use, violence and gore.   If all that makes you a little uncomfortable, I understand, but Pulp Fiction is still one of the best films of the nineties, hands down.

How do you describe a Quentin Tarantino film?  Bloody.  Lots of memorable dialogue.  Great soundtrack.  Even better scene transitions.  Quirky and foulmouthed characters.  With Tarantino’s warped mind and huge chin he can’t be tethered down to make your grandma’s movies.  Many grandma’s would be horrified by his films.

Which brings us to Pulp Fiction, one of the most influential films of the nineties that sadly, many people my age didn’t discover until late high school or early college.  I wonder today if our parents worried about us getting our hands on this film too early, or worse, too late.  I doubt my folks got a babysitter and saw this, they seemed to place an odd taboo on the night they went out to see The Birdcage.  In college, when I first started to get into Tarantino films, this and Reservoir Dogs, I was afraid I had missed the boat.  Thankfully, Grindhouse and Inglorious Bastards have made up for what I was too young to see in theaters.

Anyway, enough of this idle babble.  Pulp Fiction is the stories of interconnected people.  There’s two stories about Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta), two mob men working for Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), going around town with guns doing his dirty work.  There’s a tale about Vincent taking Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), Marsell’s wife out to dinner.  A couple at a coffee shop planning to rob the place.  And Butch Coolige (Bruce Willis) is a boxer paid by Wallace to throw a fight, back in his motel room is a sweet little lady named Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) who brings out the sweet side of the boxer.

Now, before you get confused, the story is not told in chronological order.  Instead, the film seems to build up to most amount of blood and greatest story of redemption.  If you keep that in mind, it may not seem like so much pulp.

One of the best scenes is at the fifties themed restaurant Jack Rabbit Slim’s.  Mia has Vincent take her there on their night out.  The waiters are dead rock and roll legends, they sit in classic convertibles and drink a five dollar milkshake.  As Vincent describes, “it’s like a wax museum with a pulse.”  The setting is only icing on the cake.  Mia is an odd person, she and Vincent talk but refuse to go on with the typical idle bull.  Their conversation is intriguing, engaging and it’s all topped off by Mia entering them in the twist contest.  Tarantino knows where to dig for gold, putting Travolta on the dance floor again reminds us of and nearly rivals his moves in Saturday Night Fever.

So who would love this movie?  In the beginning paragraph, you can tell who would not love this movie.  I don’t think you have to be a diehard Tarantino fanboy to love this, you don’t even have to like any of the actors.  The film itself is a little odd, quirky, and unconventional in a very cool way.  If you’re not sure, just try it.  And don’t watch Pulp Fiction on AMC, seems to be playing twice a day there lately.  I understand they need to edit it, but why not just play it late at night when the kiddies should be in bed and us cheap adults who don’t want to pay for Netflix can enjoy the movie as it’s supposed to be: bloody, violent and full of profanity.  That’s where you get the best lines.

“Does he look like a bitch?  No!  Then why you tryin’ to fuck him like a bitch?”

Dangerous Liaisons

Imagine France around the 1760’s.  Everything is so elaborate with a thousand ruffles, powdered wigs and no one can get a breath of fresh air with their girdles so tight.  Sounds stale and boring as their afternoon conversations, right?  Well, it’s surprisingly anything but once the games of lust and seduction start.

That’s right, these horny French aristocrats get bored and amuse themselves by taking bets to see what virtuous maidens they can seduce.  All while keeping their well bred eloquent speech in tact.  Honestly, I groaned while reading the Netflix summary and was surprised by how much I enjoyed the movie right from the start.  In that first scene, Malkovich saunters in, leans on a fancy couch and turns his head to casually stare at a young woman’s blossoming bosom.  It only gets better.

The all star cast is delightful.  We’ve got Glen Close and John Malkovich as the ring leaders and their play things Michelle Pheiffer, Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves.  Yes, they have character names, but the thing is, they don’t stick since they’re very French and proper.  Close and Malkovich are both rich and powerful, they know how to play society’s games to have anything and anyone.  They’re ex-lovers as well, extra spicy.  Anyway, they hear Thurman is set to marry one of Close’s ex-lovers.  Close wants Malkovich to seduce the virtuous Thurman so that her ex will be humiliated.  Close also makes a more challenging bet with Malkovich, to seduce a devoted married woman (played by Michelle Pheifer).  If he succeeds, his reward is one last night with Close.  He sets off and uses Thurman as a pawn in an elaborate game of deceit, blackmail and lust.

Sounds like fun, huh?  It is!  It’s hard to imagine that underneath all the powder and ruffles are these red-blooded conniving beings that take so much pleasure in power and suffering.  But both Close and Malkovich play their characters with such proper gusto.  Their long winded proper aristocrat speech can feel stuffy and steamy at the same time.  It’s full of wit and diabolical emotion, something many actors in similar roles would let fall flat, like old balloons.  It’s sheer joy to watch these two greats play off each other like a big French game of cat and mouse.

It’s not all just talking either, this is about lust and seduction so this film can’t shy away at the bedroom scenes.  One of the most poignant details for me was that after a conquest, more than once, one partner will write a letter to their rightful partner in bed on their lover’s bare back.  How can an affair get juicier than that?

I really cannot recommend Dangerous Liaisons enough.  The historical setting is perfect; any adaption more modern would be a horrible injustice and could make it as cliché as American Pie. The acting is wonderful, the story is as meaty and succulent as a perfect steak.  Not to mention, the obviously deserved Oscars for art direction and costume design.  Grown ups, ditch the raunchy teen comedy for a night and get your kicks in a more sophisticated way.  You won’t regret it.

“I have no intention of breaking down her prejudices. I want her to believe in God and virtue and the sanctity of marriage, and still not be able to stop herself. I want the excitement of watching her betray everything that is most important to her.”

***This is my pick for 1988.  Rain Man is good, but Dangerous Liaisons is just more enjoyable all around.***