justinhubbell

Pulp Fiction was my favorite movie. Okay maybe not my number one, after all Monty Python and the Holy Grail? That's unfair.
But Pulp Fiction was hands down one of my favorite movies of all time.

I saw it when I was maybe 13 and it rocked my socks, everything about it was cool, funny, brutal, sexy... It was a perfect movie and I would relish the opportunity to introduce it to my friends. I must have watched it 30 times between 13 and 18.

In college a professor even broke it down in my History of Film course - citing Pulp Fiction as a prime example of post modernism (which it is.)

Fast forward (or rewind, really) to life after college. I had received my BFA sure but it was my minor in Black Studies that had transformed my consciousness from being "neutral" to "political."

I hadn't seen Pulp Fiction in some time so I watched it all by myself. And it was as great as I remembered, totally flawless, until...
...until Quentin decided that the best person to play "Jimmie Dimmick" would be himself.

When Vincent and Jules get a thorough tongue lashing from Jimmie for showing up with a dead body it's a glorious moment in the film where everything comes to a screeching halt only to go right back into 5th gear again. It's awesome, and Jimmie has one of the best monologues in the movie. Except...

...except it's fucking Quentin Tarantino! His performance is awkward and clumsy at best, and at worst?
At worst I think he just wanted to say the N word as many times as possible and get away with it.
Frankly it felt like the part was written for a black man and Quentin just stepped in and said "No, I want this part."

NOTHING about his performance is convincing - because he's NOT an actor.
If the part was for a complete nerd (which is what Quentin is) but it wasn't.

Pulp Fiction had always been one of my favorite movies, but to be completely honest? Quentin ruined it. Completely ruined the ending for me.
And in my despair I began watching his other movies scouring them for reasons to defend his work but instead the more I watched less I liked him!

- - I will admit that I can't throw out Kill Bill 1 and 2 or Death Proof I just can't even though they are problematic - -

And then Django Unchained comes out and one of my favorite directors Spike Lee (who also shouldn't cast himself in his own fucking movies) calls it an insult and refuses to watch it.

I was curious what Quentin's thoughts were, but I never got them. I got angry rants and tantrums like this one:



And they weren't the words of a calm collected person trying to make a statement about our values or the way we tell history, or even just the fun of reversing the roles of the victimized Black man... It was his screaming "I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT SO THERE."

There are too many angry nerds.  I know it seemed cool in the 2000s?  But nerds losing their shit is tired, tasteless, and often offensive.

I don't know how else to say it. I admit that I too have behaved like Quentin Tarantino when confronted with questions that rub me the wrong way.
I too am an egotistical prick sometimes. I'm not saying he's a bad person? or that his films are bad?

I just can't anymore. I can't do it. YOU BROKE MY HEART, QUENTIN.