‘Reservoir Dogs’ at 30 and the Legacy of Sundance ’92

Reservoir Dogs 1992

Funded after Tarantino spent years shopping scripts around Hollywood; Lawrence Bender and Harvey Keitel got it made, shot on a tiny budget in Highland Park in the summer of '91.

Pulp Fiction 1994

The one Fennessey actually saw first, as a teenager. The two films are 'kissing cousins,' but Reservoir Dogs works by withholding what Pulp Fiction eventually shows.

Natural Born Killers 1994

One of the scripts Tarantino was shopping around Hollywood in the years before Reservoir Dogs got made.

True Romance 1993

Sold around the same time as Natural Born Killers, before Tarantino could get Reservoir Dogs financed.

City on Fire 1987

The Ringo Lam heist film critics who knew it accused Reservoir Dogs of lifting from.

The Killing 1956

The Kubrick heist picture critics of the era read as Reservoir Dogs' clearest antecedent.

Blue Velvet 1986

Invoked via David Foster Wallace's line: Lynch is interested in a human ear, Tarantino just wants to show it cut off.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991

The counterexample: a movie with nothing obscure to chase down, unlike Reservoir Dogs' cultivated deep cuts.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 1974

One of the reference points a kid could plausibly have already seen, making the Mr. Pink/Mr. Blonde naming scheme legible.

Sleep with Me 1994

Tarantino's cameo riffing on Top Gun, an early sample of the pop-culture monologue he'd become known for.

Crimson Tide 1995

An uncredited Tarantino dialogue polish job.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2019

Cited as proof Tarantino always loved Hollywood, even while he was hustling to break into it.

Husbands 1970

The Cassavetes film Buscemi, in some alternate 1967, could plausibly have starred in.

In the Soup 1992

Beat Reservoir Dogs to the Grand Jury Prize that year, carried by Steve Buscemi opposite Seymour Cassel.

Delicatessen 1991

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's post-apocalyptic import: 'Mad Max if it didn't go outside.'

Edward II 1991

Derek Jarman's film, the new-queer-cinema standard-bearer of that class.

The Living End 1992

Gregg Araki's road movie about two HIV-positive characters, unapologetic in a way My Own Private Idaho wasn't.

Swoon 1992

Tom Kalin's Leopold-and-Loeb retelling, a companion piece to Todd Haynes's Poison.

Gas Food Lodging 1992

Allison Anders's breakthrough; her career stalling out after it is the episode's case study in how indie Hollywood treats its women directors.

Poison Ivy 1992

Katt Shea's Drew Barrymore vehicle, defended here as more than the punchline it became at the festival.

Streets 1990

Shea's earlier film, with Christina Applegate as a drug-addicted sex worker in Los Angeles.

Mi Vida Loca 1993

Anders's follow-up to Gas Food Lodging.

Grace of My Heart 1996

Another Anders film; Ileana Douglas's performance is called one of the great unnominated turns of the mid-'90s.

Sugar Town 1999

Things Behind the Sun 2001

Anders's last feature before an 11-year gap from directing.

River of Grass 1994

Kelly Reichardt's debut two years later at Sundance, which also cost her nearly a decade before her next feature.

Kafka 1991

Soderbergh's follow-up to sex, lies, and videotape, now largely forgotten and reportedly due for restoration.

sex, lies, and videotape 1989

Cited as the first true Sundance phenomenon, three years ahead of Reservoir Dogs.

Mississippi Masala 1991

Mira Nair's film from that year.

Brother's Keeper 1992

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's documentary, a forerunner of the streaming true-crime boom.

Night on Earth 1991

Jarmusch was already an established name by the time this played.

A Brief History of Time 1991

Errol Morris's Stephen Hawking documentary.

Incident at Oglala 1992

Michael Apted's documentary.

Color Adjustment 1992

Marlon Riggs's history of Black identity on television, called ahead of its time and only now getting real distribution.

Zebrahead 1992

Won the directing award that year; Michael Rapaport stars in an interracial romance.

The Waterdance 1992

The Grifters 1990

Called a closer analog to Reservoir Dogs than the more overtly political Sundance films of the era.

City of Hope 1991

John Sayles.

Poison 1991

Todd Haynes.

American Dream 1990

Barbara Kopple's documentary.

Roger & Me 1989

Michael Moore, cited as the prior political touchstone before Reservoir Dogs.

Trees Lounge 1996

Buscemi's directorial debut, called 'the platonic idea of a Sundance movie.'

Living in Oblivion 1995

Tom DiCillo's navel-gazing-filmmaker comedy, another Buscemi vehicle.

Barton Fink 1991

The Coens' navel-gazing-filmmaker predecessor.

King of New York 1990

A small Buscemi part before Hollywood took notice of him.

Hurlyburly 1998

Anthony Drazan's later, messier Sean Penn adaptation.

Four Rooms 1995

The Sundance-kids-reunion movie.

Boogie Nights 1997

New Line's attempt at 'their Pulp Fiction.'

Licorice Pizza 2021

Cited as evidence of the Sundance-adjacent packaging that still surrounds Paul Thomas Anderson.

Hereditary 2018

Traced as a root of Sundance's 'elevated horror' reputation.

Kaboom 2010

Araki's film, revisited via his 2019 Starz series.

Speak No Evil 2022

Teased at the very end as a nasty Danish horror pick from this year's festival.