Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)

So there are two aspects to this movie: the Tarantino dialogue about the mundane and the Tarantino crime portrayal, which is nonlinear and senselessly violent among other things. The former in this film kept me engaged, certainly, but I consider its writing lacking in skill. It seemed forced, and cinematic (or maybe literary) rather than naturalistic. This was a little disappointing; I attribute it to a young screenwriter/director who has not yet seen his energetic scripts fleshed out on the big-screen. This showed up almost singularly in the movie's introduction, however. But the whole structure and style of the Tarantino crime film, which carried out the rest of the movie, was fabulous. The conflicts of ethics and conflicts of logic between characters were terrific; the ensemble of acting had some real gems -- I particularly loved Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi (Harvey Keitel was good for the job, but didn't really impress me). Roth is a young Pacino in some flawless ways. All in all, this is simply a great film. I prefer it to Basterds and Django. It's less catchy, less stylistic, but more substantial.