Review of My Best Friend's Birthday (1987) by Sumanjit R — 29 Aug 2012

This is a heavily dialogue driven, 36 minute long narrative that's directed by the infamous Quentin Tarantino, incoherently tells the tale of Mickey Burnett, played by Craig Hamann, whom his girlfriend has just broken up with. If that wasn't enough to mess his day up, this event happens to fall on the day of his birthday, but by the friendly gesture from his best friend, Clarence Pool (Quentin Tarantino), he decides to pull off an unforgettable birthday party for him in an unconventional way.

Sharp and nimble dialogue is the name of the game here. Admittedly, the narrative may come off as a rambling mess that fails to find a conclusion to its slim narrative. Regardless, the dialogue is so unequivocally witty and engaging that whatever the characters may be talking about, whether it may be small talk or a conversation of grandiose proportions, the writing keeps audience's eyes glued to the screen. As Tarantino's debut into the film industry, this was the perfect hallmark revolution for short and feature length films to come. Films, before and after the debut of this short, for the most part, failed and are failing to match up to the standards of outlandishly sharp writing found here. Even according to contemporary standards, Tarantino continues to be an unconventionally masterful writer and director with the likes of Pulp Fiction, which is arguably considered as one of the greatest films in American cinema, and the rest of his profoundly epic filmography. In other words, the cinematic golden nuggets that are found in his superb feature films are found glimmering in this film. It can even be arguably said that this short film is an experimental film that toys around with the art of engaging conversation, no matter how dreadfully slim the narrative may be.

Nevertheless, this is an atypical short that harbors and foreshadows the splendid elements from great feature films to come from the innovative mind of Tarantino.