The Best Cinema of 1994

1

Pulp Fiction

Now here's a movie. Three stories that begin as cliches but soon go wild and wily. A gallery of tough guys who minor in philosophy. Career-defining turns by John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman. Peppery dialogue that brings macho swank into the '90s. Quentin Tarantino's adrenaline rush of a melodrama is a brash dare to timid Hollywood filmmakers. Let's see, he says, if you can be this smart about going this far.

2

Red Rock West

Film noir is more than a lighting style. It's a seedy, cynical world view: people are motivated by greed, stupidity...