MIT Lecture Series Committee

Rated R
154 minutes

Jackie Brown (1997)

FREE admission!

Quentin Tarantino returns to the crime genre once again with this adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch. Transplanting Leonard’s crime story from Miami to Tarantino’s city of choice, Los Angeles, Jackie Brown cruises along smoothly, much like the film’s 1970s soul soundtrack. The film follows Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), a flight attendant who makes extra cash by running drugs and cash for sleazebag Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson). When Jackie sees the opportunity to make off with a large chunk of change, she begins to play everyone around her, including two detectives who are threatening her with jail time if she doesn’t rat out Ordell, and a sympathetic bail bondsman (Robert Forster) who finds himself falling for Jackie. [www.rottentomatoes.com]

Pulp Fiction is a hard film to top, but Tarantino has done it, with great flair, style and sheer cinematic genius.
      -- Urban Cinefile Critics, urbancinefile.com. Read this review.