Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Pulp Fiction

(1994)

What can you say about this movie twenty years later that hasn’t already been said a thousand times before? It was totally ground-breaking, we had never seen anything remotely like it. Several stories twined together, each one of them original and totally off-the-wall. The amazing visual sense. The perfect use of music, one of the things Tarantino would become famous for. Another was his dialogue, which was like no one else in the world, and still isn’t, as Django Unchained just proved once again. It wasn’t the first movie I’d seen that warped time (Vincent? What’s Vincent doing back? I just saw him gunned down by Bruce Willis.) But it did it better than just about anyone. Each of the stars delivered career-best performances, and for some, it put them on the map. The major one was, of course, Samuel L. Jackson, who recites the same Bible verse three times and makes each one fresh and new.

In one of the all-time Oscar travesties, the Academy opted for the sweet, silly, and ultimately forgettable Forrest Gump as Best Picture, when this one simply screamed its superior quality.