S4E49: Jackie Brown

Abigail Thorn (0:00)

I tell you what, I drank something the other day, I drank some Mr. Beast X Liquid Death Peanut Butter Cup Flavoured Sparkling Water. Oh, what the fuck?

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (0:13)

That sounds like me killing myself.

Devon (0:14)

That sounds like someone- I can't even- that's too many things!

Abigail Thorn (0:18)

It tastes like peanut butter cups. The first sip is just like, yeah, they made that, and then the subsequent sips are like, this is getting worse rapidly.

Devon (0:25)

We shouldn't do this. Yeah, sometimes the soda exists for the first sip to be like, wow, they actually did get pretty close to that flavor, and then every subsequent sip to be like, why did they do that?

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (0:34)

Why would they feel like it was necessary?

Devon (0:35)

Your scientists were so concerned about whether or not they could.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (0:40)

And with great soda comes great responsibility.

Devon (0:42)

I swear to God, there's like a chocolate and banana flavored Fanta I've seen before.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (1:04)

Hello and welcome to another episode of Kill James Bond. I am November Kelly. I am joined as always by my friends, Abigail Thorn and Devon.

Devon (1:11)

Hello. Cowabunga, brother.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (1:14)

Gentle listener. And before we get into this, let me just go to my browser and open something up here. A list of Pepsi variations.

That's a surprise tool that will help us later. However, for this part of Heist season, we are encamped firmly in a world that begins with the beautiful phrase that we love to see, Quentin and Tarantino by Rich and Directino.

Abigail Thorn (1:41)

Yes, Tarantino season continues on Kill James Bond.

Devon (1:44)

It's gonna be hot, it's gonna be tight. It's cool, it's a cool movie, it's great, whoa!

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (1:48)

It's a big picture, it's a good movie! It's cool, it's got a lot of feet in it. It contains some opinions about the state of Israel.

Devon (1:55)

It does.

The thing about Jackie Brown is that it was really early in the movies that he made, and it just... My take on this is if he'd made this even five years later, it would have been too annoying for me to enjoy. But this is like, snatching the hat out as it closes, like Indiana Jones. I think some of his worst instincts are starting to show up here, but they are nowhere near as bad as they get in his later catalogue, which I just can't stand.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (2:21)

Yeah, I'm conscious of the fact that this is going to be three white people talking about a movie with a lot of black people in it that relates to a lot of blaxploitation movies. However, Quentin Tarantino is white, and I know he considers that to be a sort of form of violence against him.

Abigail Thorn (2:41)

He is one of us, we do have to acknowledge him, we do claim him.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (2:44)

Yeah, and so does he, is the problem, and he really doesn't want to. And Jackie Brown, which is his third film, is, I think it's very good, I think it shares a lot of the optimism of something like True Romance, which is sort of a stronger thing, he was a better director when he was more optimistic, or the nihilism really got him, but he was also a better director before he felt like he had to work out on screen exactly why he felt the way that he does about black people, you know?

Abigail Thorn (3:15)

Yeah, you should really try and figure that out, ideally not in public. Uh, like before you make the movie, yeah.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (3:22)

Yeah, well the way that he seems to feel about it is, I should be allowed to say the word.

Devon (3:27)

He does believe it, yes. I mean, he lets himself say it a couple of times, not in this movie, but in his catalogue.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (3:35)

Well, in Reservoir Dogs, it's there to shock, right, and to go, oh, these people are repulsive, right? Here, you know, it's that too, but it's also sort of something that he's sort of normalizing for himself using black actors and writing dialogue for them.

Devon (3:53)

You do kinda get the sense, but he's going, they can say it, it's allowed. You can't get mad at me.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (3:59)

He's worked out a foolproof strategy.

Abigail Thorn (4:01)

A raptor testing the fences here.

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (4:04)

Yeah, to say the word, which is, if I write in Samuel L Jackson's script that he should say the word, then it's like I'm saying it.