Stealing Pulp Fiction, 2025.
Written and Directed by Danny Turkiewicz.
Starring Jon Rudnitsky, Karan Soni, Cazzie David, Jason Alexander, Oliver Cooper, Taylor Hill, Elin Hampton, Chris Barry, Matt Adams, Ennis C. Jackson, Elin Hampton, Alex Morand, Skip Howland, and Seager Tennis.
SYNOPSIS:
Jonathan, Elizabeth and Steve try to steal Quentin Tarantino’s personal print of Pulp Fiction (1994).
For a comedy titled Stealing Pulp Fiction, writing the characters should, in theory, come naturally, yet somehow proves to be the hardest and most confounding part for writer/director Danny Turkiewicz, here expanding upon his short into a feature-length film that somehow doesn’t have enough material to sustain the already scanned running time of 78 minutes. You take some Quentin Tarantino diehards, potentially mixing them up with one of his haters, and let them loose trying to steal the film, which in this case is the director’s personal 35mm print that plays annually at self-owned New Beverly Cinema, which is not the actual name of the beater here nor the filming location for obvious reasons, although there is a hilariously bad Quentin Tarantino impersonator in the back half of this lousy, baffling experience.
Jon Rudnitsky’s Jonathan somewhat fits that bill; he loves Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction, but his motives for stealing the personal print are purely for financial gain. This hinders the heist aspect, reducing it to something entirely generic, more about the act of stealing something rather than allowing the material to be elevated through its specificity. If anything, the film is more concerned with a subplot painting Jonathan as a creeper allowing his depressed therapist Dr. Mandelbaum (Jason Alexander, one of the few bright spots here, simply because it’s nearly impossible for him not to be funny) into the share of theoretical stolen reels in exchange for a file on a conventionally attractive woman patient (Taylor Hill) he routinely ogles during the 30 seconds in between her leaving his office and him entering for his scheduled appointment.
Jonathan’s best friend/partner in crime is Karan Soni’s Steve, who is inexplicably cartoonishly dumb. The character appears to have no interest in Quentin Tarantino whatsoever, mostly going along with his friend’s scheming simply because he has nothing better to do and never feels like a real person. Even Beavis from Beavis and Butthead occasionally had an intelligent thought. Here, the character is outlandishly stupid for no real reason, although Karan Soni mostly makes it work through comedic timing and balancing Jonathan’s misguided ambition and crudeness with over-the-top politeness and naivety. However, that doesn’t change that what the character is doing in this movie is a mystery.
Another member of the team is introduced, as Jonathan quickly concludes that they can pull this off by themselves and require the help of unapologetic Quentin Tarantino hater Elizabeth (Cazzie David), who could have been a sharp counterbalance to the fanboy persona if that dynamic was leaned into more and also didn’t amount to the lazy argument that Quentin Tarantino, the man who directed Kill Bill, doesn’t write compelling roles for women. Even the foot fetishist jab, which seems accurate based on his movies, is low-hanging fruit.
Even Danny Turkiewicz doesn’t display much passion or reverence for Quentin Tarantino, aside from occasionally mimicking some visual flair (flashing red lights and sirens at one point during the movie theater) and having these characters ramble about nothing. However, I’m honestly not sure if the latter is intentional or more a result of the fact that there is, at most, 45 minutes of material here. The film is done right before the one-hour mark, yet somehow finds ways to tack on two more chapters (a structural style aped here).
There is nothing to say or point to be made about Quentin Tarantino’s movies or him as a person, meaning Stealing Pulp Fiction is seemingly made by someone who has no interesting opinions or relation to the filmmaker. The scattered moments of effective humor have nothing to do with what this film is ostensibly about; a practice run trying to rob Dr. Mandelbaum, who has an office in the back of a karate studio, gets the most laughs in a film that already doesn’t have many. However, there is a clunky, forced ending about the uniting power of movies.
This is a tantalizing idea for a comedy that’s irritating from the get-go, weirdly dropping the title card before Pulp Fiction has been mentioned, and after five minutes of chitchat. Stealing Pulp Fiction is so generic it could have been about stealing anything, let alone a personal 35mm print of one of the greatest films of all time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
