on shelves and screens this month • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino’s most relatable film, and not just because everyone in it is in love with Pam Grier. (How could you not be?) “The Life,” as people sometimes call it in movies, has no retirement plan. But the characters in Jackie Brown are all obsessed with the mature concerns of retirement, and security, and getting theirs before it’s too late. Some of them are more clever about it than others—none more clever than Jackie herself, of course—but that’s because this isn’t just a film about aging.

It’s also about acceptance, and disappointment, and facing the weaknesses and flaws and bad decisions that kept you from realizing whatever dreams remain unfulfilled as you reach middle age. As you get older, you become more yourself. And at some point, you have to make peace with the fact that this is your life, and it’s real, and it’s the only one you’re ever going to get. It’s remarkable that a director in his 30s grasped all of this—although it might not be a coincidence that it’s also Tarantino’s only movie (so far) based on a novel, Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch. Jordan calls it “a young man’s old man film, an elegy to vinyl in the jewel case era.”

Coming in the wake of Pulp Fiction, some contemporary critics were disappointed by the (relative) lack of showboating in Tarantino’s third feature. That same restraint means that it’s aged better than some of his other films, however: “Even if Tarantino’s choices aren’t quite as flashy here, they’re absolutely perfect,” Matt writes. I agree, and see the same “loving care” for these perfectly imperfect characters that Felipe recognizes. The character-based story and quotidian locations really make the dialogue sing, and the romantic R&B soundtrack matches the mood perfectly. It’s Tarantino’s best film, and its reappraisal on is the kind of redemption arc this movie aches for.

For those looking for even more 4K Tarantino, LionsGate is going all-out in January with SteelBook releases of Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and Reservoir Dogs.