Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 2 ratings
Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.
Jackie Brown is one of Tarantino's most underrated works, elevated enormously by its performances — Pam Grier commands the screen in a career-best role, and Samuel L. Jackson delivers a genuinely menacing turn as Ordell. The film wears its blaxploitation homage on its sleeve with affection and craft. The plot is a slow-burn heist procedural adapted from Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch, competent and engaging but not labyrinthine. Cinematography is workmanlike genre-solid rather than visually dazzling. Its novelty lies in its mature, unhurried tone and character focus — unusual for Tarantino — but it remains grounded in recognizable neo-noir conventions. The ending is satisfying and character-true without being particularly surprising.