Pulp Fiction Review, 21 Years Later June 19th, 2015
The local movie theater is showing some retro films this summer. Last night I caught Pulp Fiction. I know it’s a movie I could watch on video, but it was nice seeing it on the big screen again after 21 years. It brought me back to the time when I was just discovering movies as art, so it was nice to reconnect with it.
It was fun seeing Quentin Tarantino’s style emerge in his sophomore film, and the narrative structure still held up very well. Rather than being just an artifice, I liked how the non-linear story worked in the individual vignettes to show the arcs of the various characters.
I could see some of Tarantino’s self-indulgence in dwelling on minutia which was frustrating in Death Proof. In this things worked well though and while a couple of scenes ran long, there was nothing egregious. Plus now as then, I loved the fondness for Americana pop culture and it made a wonderful cinematic time capsule; Buddy Holly’s not a very good waiter.
It was fun revisiting the mystery of what’s in the briefcase. I can believe it’s just supposed to be a MacGuffin. However, given the themes of grace amongst the chaos and redemption, the fan theory of it being Marsellus Wallace’s soul is very fitting. I’ve heard proof on both fronts, and figure personal interpretation is more meaningful.