There’s a knowing, 50s-esque sensibility in the offbeat humor and wide-eyed, earnest performances (e.g. the peculiar horticulturist) that’s easy to read as inept or miscalculated. Guess that’s why everyone shit their pants and called this the worst movie ever made. To the credit of its detractors, Wahlberg isn’t right for the material and Zooey Deschanel gives probably the worst performance in a Shyamalan film. But the idea that this is some nadir of auteurist pop filmmaking is not only wrong…

• Didn’t think I would include this in the QT retrospective but I watched almost everything else and figured why not. Honestly, I think this is my favorite movie.

• Ordell is such a rich character on the page that any talented actor could manage a strong performance, but Sam Jackson so fully inhabits the character as to render him flesh and blood. Something great about Tarantino’s writing is that he understands we’re different people when we’re around different people.…