True Romance (1993)

Directed by Tony Scott. Starring Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Michael Rapaport, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Saul Rubinek, Bronson Pinchot, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, Val Kilmer, Anna Thomson, Conchata Ferrell, Victor Argo. [R]

A lovers-on-the-lam melodrama serves as the springboard for this visceral, verbose, violent riff on genre tropes, overloaded with pop culture references, sleek visuals, itchy urgency, macho posturing, and a gallery of colorful supporting performances from its stacked cast (there’s even a bit part for Samuel L. Jackson). The only thing that lonely comic book store clerk Clarence Worley (Slater) loves more than Elvis Presley is Alabama Whitman (Arquette), the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold paradigm he meets under false pretenses on his birthday. She loves him, too, and after he commits murder to get her out from under the thumb of her dead-eyed and deranged gangster of a pimp (Oldman), they go on the run and try to sell a large cocaine stash that he swiped from the pimp, with mobsters and cops closing in. Screenwriter Quentin Tarantino’s dialogue, attitude and milieu are all unmistakable, and director Scott infuses the material with gleaming visuals and a brash energy; the fusion may not always work, and the sheer amorality is a divergence from the subtextual themes of redemption and honor-among-thieves found in much of the writer’s early work, but the amphetamine rush is as infectious as the stylized acting. Chief shortcoming: the lead characters aren’t nearly as compelling as the other cast members—most of whom don’t even get five minutes of screentime—and with limited involvement in their perilous plight, it’s more of a hip, bloody technical exercise than a, well, true romance. A box office dud upon release, it found its audience on home video.

79/100