💥 PLEASE talk to Ben Joravsky about Quentin Tarantino

He has a lot of thoughts on "Jackie Brown" that need an outlet. [READER]( The Daily Reader January 9, 2024 I got a call the other day from a millennial I’ll call Rachel, as that’s her name. Rachel said, “Dad, did you ever read that Once Upon a Time book? . . . by which she meant Quentin Tarantino’s 2021 novelization of his 2019 movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. To which I replied . . . “Are you kidding me! I bought it the weekend it came out and read it right away. Did [a show about it]( with Chris Buddy, another Tarantino freak. So, yes, I read it. Why do you ask?” “Uhm, I was thinking of buying it for, uh, Jack and, uh, I wanted to know if you recommended it,” she said. At which point I exclaimed, “Wait! Hold it! Jack’s a Tarantino fan?” “Uh…" A few things you should know. Jack is the father of Lili, Rachel’s girlfriend. And I’m a Tarantino fan who’s always looking for new people with whom I can obsessively talk Tarantino, one of my favorite topics. As in . . . Why I still don’t like Reservoir Dogs—at all. But I love Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It’s second only to my all-time favorite, Jackie Brown. Which is then followed by Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds and . . . oh, you get the idea. The point is the notion that Jack’s a Tarantino fan is an exciting prospect because it means there’s one more person in my life with whom I can talk QT. Immediately, I needed more information. And I began what amounted to an interrogation of Rachel, right then on the phone. “How do you know Jack likes QT?” “Uh, it sorta came up in a conversation . . .” “Really! How did it come up?” “Dad, I’m really busy. I can’t talk right now . . .” “Okay, but did Jack say which movies he likes best?” “Gotta go . . .” “Wait! Really fast. Does he like Jackie Brown?” But she was off. Fast forward a couple of days. Rachel called about something else. But before she could get to it, I pounced… “Did you talk to Jack?” “What?” “About QT? Did he see Jackie Brown?” “Oh, that. Dad, I gotta tell you something…” And then she confessed. She had no idea if Jack had seen Jackie Brown, or any Tarantino movie. She’d never actually talked to him about Tarantino. No, she’d used Jack as an excuse to ask me if I’d read the novelization of Once Upon a Time cause she was thinking of buying it for me as a gift. In other words, she had fibbed. But then I’d caught her off guard with my excitement. And you know how it goes when you tell a fib, even an innocent one. Chances are you have to tell a few other fibs, especially if the topic is QT and the person you’re talking to is psycho on that topic. We had a good laugh at my exuberance. And yet . . . When we hung up, I was a little disappointed. Turns out Jack’s not a Tarantino fan after all. Just one less guy to talk QT with. 🎙Listen to [The Ben Joravsky Show]( 🎙 Horse: [Geraldine Brooks’ latest novel](. She writes about the evil legacy of slavery, while telling the story of Lexington, a champion 19th-century race horse. A tribute to the late, great actor [Mike Nussbaum]( by BJ Jones… Ben Joravsky on [Flint Taylor](. [Best of the Ben J. Show]( SEIU Healthcare’s Candis Castillo on [Trump’s ballot access](. Veteran journalist Monroe Anderson on [Epstein, Claudine Gay, and Justin Fields](. Political strategist Laurie Glenn on [Harvard forcing out its president](. [The COVID generation speaks out at the 37th Annual Young Playwrights Festival]( This year’s winning writers found inspiration in isolation, mortality, Black Lives Matter, and Bridgerton. by [Kerry Reid]( | [Read here]( → [Review: Godzilla Minus One]( Godzilla Minus One is a perfectly imperfect monster movie. by [Katie Prout]( | [Read here]( → [Review: Maestro]( Carey Mulligan’s performance saves this oddly paced Leonard Bernstein biopic. by [Maxwell Rabb]( | [Read here]( → [Haptic converges in Chicago for a rare hometown show]( by [Bill Meyer]( | [Read here]( → Last week left! The Best of Chicago voting period is over at 11:59 PM on Sunday, January 14. Be sure to check out the ballot and vote for your favorite categories, including Arts & Culture, Cannabis, and Food & Drink! [BEST OF CHICAGO 2023 BALLOT]( [Issue of Dec. 28, 2023 – Jan. 10, 2024 Vol. 53, No. 6]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE [PDF]]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2024 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616