Pulp Fiction

Reservoir Dogs made him the hipsters’ darling, but it was 1994’s Pulp Fiction that, for better or worse, anointed Quentin Tarantino as The New Genius Who Will Change Moviemaking Forever. Nobody, of course, can stand up to that level of hype, and QT certainly later proved himself capable of graceless junk. (Exhibit A: Four Rooms.) But, y’know, it’s not going too far to say that Pulp Fiction’s influence shows up in many good (and bad) crime films made since. Sure, it has faults. The flashy editing and then-radical nonlinear chronology mask a certain superficiality. It’s convinced of its own cleverness, and rings hollow when dealing with questions of morality. It also brought John Travolta back from obscurity, and thus is directly responsible for Battlefield Earth . Still, it’s brilliant and stylish storytelling, and as far-reaching in its way as Citizen Kane.