Reservoir Dogs (1992, dir. Quentin Tarantino)

When one watches Quentin Tarantino's debut "Reservoir Dogs" today, he or she comes to the picture with the knowledge of what came after.  "Reservoir Dogs", from today's perspective, is a brilliant film - quirky, amusing, revolting, and transcendent.  But, being the director's first film, one has to acknowledge that it is merely a preview for things to come.  Tarantino would really hit his stride with his following film, "Pulp Fiction" in 1994 and would go on to direct an array of beautiful, postmodern gems that have never failed to disappoint.

His debut from 1992 packs a visceral punch and at an hour and 35 minutes seems to breeze by.  It would contain many of the elements that would come to characterize "Pulp Fiction" - pulse-pounding, nerve-wracking tension, a playfulness with the exposition of narrative chronology, violence, and a narrative universe that seems to exist in an alternative dimension.  The actors inhabit their characters gracefully and believably to the extent that we are invested in their fates and trajectories.

Tarantino directs with an expressive exploitation of cinematic lore.  You can see his influences in every frame and camera movement.  You get a sense of different genres of cinema all at once - French New Wave, Hong Kong crime films, Spaghetti Westerns, film noir, and American 1970's cinema.  It is the seamless nature with which he blends all these and others that lends to the overall brilliance of this debut feature.

Basically the film tells the tale of a heist gone wrong.  It shows the prelude and planning for the heist and its aftermath but never the actual diamond store heist itself.  This technique by Tarantino is a bold move and adds to the charm of the picture via the thwarting of expectations.

The finale of the film is breathtakingly choreographed and riveting to watch.  When the credits role, you are left with some questions unanswered but that's the only way it should be.  Do the mysteries of life ever really reveal themselves?

As far as debuts go, "Reservoir Dogs" is among the most impressive and shocking.  It is a wonder that QT never went to film school.  No he didn't.  He "went to films" and it shows.