By Jonathan Monovich.
Stealing Pulp Fiction leaves Tarantino’s ambitious narrative structure behind. Instead, Turkiewicz embraces a straightforward story without twists, turns, and time warps.”
A so-called “thief” of film history, Quentin Tarantino’s style, predicated on the referential, looks to the past for influence. Tarantino has long prided himself for “stealing.” Viewed as a rite of passage, Tarantino’s art of the “steal,” is taken literally for Danny Turkiewicz’s Stealing Pulp Fiction (2024). Just as Pulp Fiction (1994) opened with Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) impulsively robbing a diner, Turkiewicz’s feature debut follows two nimrods’ epiphany to steal Tarantino’s personal 35mm film print of Pulp Fiction. Both pairings have similar realizations that their targets are unguarded, but basic instinct shadows reasonable doubt and the consequences are gone unevaluated. In Stealing Pulp Fiction, Jonathan (Jon Rudnitsky) serves as the Pumpkin to his Honey Bunny, Steve (Karan Soni). Whereas Pulp Fiction stylishly meandered in finding its way back to the diner by the film’s unchronological end, Stealing Pulp Fiction leaves Tarantino’s ambitious narrative structure behind. Instead, Turkiewicz embraces a straightforward story without twists, turns, and time warps. Turkiewicz’s characters may literally steal Pulp Fiction, but Turkiewicz never goes all the way in figuratively doing the same. Keith Mansfield’s “Funky Fanfare” music plays alongside Stealing Pulp Fiction’s title card, but this is no grindhouse presentation. Growing from a sleek black and white short to a color feature, Stealing Pulp Fiction’s metamorphosis and aesthetics are more akin to Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket (1996) than its namesake.
Turkiewicz has previously exhibited potential with his shorts, particularly I am Michael Jordane (2014), Evil Woman (2017), and Blue Creek Mountain (2022). What makes these shorts excel is their comedic timing built off unexpected scenarios. Stealing Pulp Fiction’s plot is largely predictable, though the sporadic offbeat moments give it personality. Stealing Pulp Fiction’s lead, Jonathan, does a Clarence Worley impression donning a red Hawaiian shirt and a Christian Slater rasp a la True Romance (1993). What appears to be a tale of two dorks in pursuit of a film print, Stealing Pulp Fiction is really about finding one’s own Alabama (Patricia Arquette)-like partner. For Jonathan, he dreams of uniting with model turned actress Taylor Hill after locking eyes with her at his therapist, Dr. Mendelbaum’s (Jason Alexander), office. Conveniently located in the back of a karate dojo, Mendelbaum spends his sessions asking clients for restaurant recommendations and playing role reversal to vent about his marital problems. One can’t help but see Alexander’s inner George Costanza emerge in moments like these as a loveable loser. Aware of Costanza’s pitch for a show about nothing on a show about nothing, Seinfeld (1989-1999), Turkiewicz’s casting recognizes that Pulp Fiction too strives in its dialogue-heavy moments of nothingness. As for Steve, he longs for Elizabeth (Cazzie David). She is dragged into the mix for her equal, yet in the opposite direction, passion for Tarantino. David’s presence as a wise-cracking curmudgeon resembles her character Remi of the web-series Eighty-Sixed (2017) [also directed by Turkiewicz]. Her always skeptical personality, and generally unenthusiastic demeanor, plays like a monotone version of her iconic father, Larry David, of Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2024)/Seinfeld fame.
Unlike Pumpkin/Honey Bunny, Jonathan, Steve, and Elizabeth, devise a plan, which includes a practice heist. Problems arise when it quickly becomes evident that the plan is grossly underdeveloped. In an attempt to win back his wife, Mendelbaum joins the terrible trio in stealing the film print of all film prints. For its similarity in plot, Stealing Pulp Fiction’s basic premise can best be compared to Fanboys (2009). Chronicling a group attempting to break into George Lucas’ Skywalker ranch to show their dying buddy Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), the fanboys perform their heist in the name of friendship. The motive for the heist in Stealing Pulp Fiction stems from obsession. At the first midnight screening at Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema in Stealing Pulp Fiction, the theater’s employees don t-shirts that read “I love movies films.” By the time the gang comes back for the second screening, the t-shirts have changed to cross out “films” and replace the term with “cinema.” Stealing Pulp Fiction is indeed a movie, and Turkiewicz doesn’t shy from it. It’s also a clever joke as part of what made Pulp Fiction special was that it possessed the sensibilities of a movie with the technique of a film. Those involved clearly had fun making Stealing Pulp Fiction, and the cast’s enthusiasm makes the viewing experience more enjoyable.
There is a greater focus on trying to be cute than building worlds in Stealing Pulp Fiction. For example, Steve’s recurring wardrobe of vintage Fila tennis apparel obviously points to Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) of The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). There is some stealing going on here, but its presence feels out of place. Turkiewicz’s inclusion of a chapter structure, a mock “Lonesome Town” song, a glowing briefcase, and occasional surfer rock seems more appropriate for the clear connections to the source material. In Stealing Pulp Fiction Dr. Mendelbaum says “practice makes progress,” not perfect; the quote surmises the feature itself. Applaudable for its ambition, Stealing Pulp Fiction serves as a trial run for a talented writer/director in search of his own style. Like Travolta’s Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, Turkiewicz battles with himself on how to proceed. Just as Fanboys was a tale of friendship masked as a tale of fandom, Stealing Pulp Fiction is really a story of growing up. Turkiewicz’s movie argues that there comes a time when one should move on from Pulp Fiction. It’s a realization that the many Tarantino knock-offs of the 90s and even Tarantino himself would probably come to admit. With Pulp Fiction built on ideology imparted by Jean-Luc Godard, that a film should have “a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order,”1 Tarantino later said that he outgrew Godard. Tarantino has also accepted that his style is just as indebted to Pauline Kael’s review of Godard’s Band of Outsiders (1964) and its formulation of the notion that “it’s as if a French poet took an ordinary banal American crime novel and told it to us in terms of the romance and beauty he read between the lines.”2 Turkiewicz seemingly understands Tarantino’s roots and his evolution, even subtly referencing his masterpiece Inglorious Basterds (2009) at one point. For Stealing Pulp Fiction being so tied up in the lore of Pulp Fiction and True Romance but not fully wanting to admit it, making Tarantino appear as an overexaggerated caricature in Stealing Pulp Fiction somewhat negatesthe movie’s heartfelt gesture of acknowledging a personal influence. Despite the imperfections of Turkiewicz’s feature debut, I look forward to future work that ideally embraces the authorial voice of his shorts.
Stealing Pulp Fiction is in theaters, and available on digital, June 27th via Giant Pictures.
Notes1. Gibbons, Fiachra. “Jean-Luc Godard: ‘Film Is Over. What to Do?’” The Guardian, 12 July 2011, www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jul/12/jean-luc-godard-film-socialisme.
2. Kael, Pauline. “Godard Among the Gangsters,” The New Republic, 10 Sept. 1966, www.newrepublic.com/article/121875/pauline-kael-reviews-godards-band-outsiders.
Jonathan Monovich is a Chicago-based writer and a regular contributor for Film International. His writing has also been featured in Film Matters, Bright Lights Film Journal, and PopMatters.