Quentin Tarantino has carved his own furrow through Hollywood since he exploded into theaters with 1992’s Reservoir Dogs. He quickly proved he wasn’t a flash-in-the-pan with his sophomore feature (and all-time great) Pulp Fiction, and has since turned out an impeccable filmography.
Tarantino has long insisted he’s only ever going to make ten features, arguing that “most directors have horrible last movies” and that he wants to go out on top. His last film, 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, was his ninth, so theoretically, he’s heading for retirement after one last job. That was going to be The Movie Critic, though it’s now been scrapped and Tarantino has returned to the drawing board.
All of which makes it the perfect time for Tarantino to cast an eye back on his work and identify which of his films his the best. Speaking in an interview on The Church of Tarantino podcast, he was quizzed about his opinion. Many directors would have awkwardly moved on and refused to identify a favorite. Not Tarantino.
But there are a few qualifiers: He began by saying, “I think Kill Bill is the ultimate Quentin movie, like nobody else could’ve made it. Every aspect about it is so particularly ripped, like with tentacles and bloody tissue, from my imagination and my id and my loves and my passion and my obsession. So I think Kill Bill is the movie I was born to make.”
He then emphasized that his most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is his personal favorite. But as for the one he considers his all-time masterpiece? 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, which he also identified as his “best script”.
What’s next?
We’ll going to be waiting a while for Tarantino’s “final” movie, but that doesn’t mean he’s slacking off. Next year, we’ll get Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, seeing Brad Pitt’s charismatic stuntman return in 1977, eight years after we last saw him. Tarantino wrote the script, but handed directorial duties to David Fincher as he didn’t want his final movie to be a sequel.
Beyond that, he’s taking to the stage for a new theatrical production in London’s West End, which opens in 2026. Little is known about this project, though it’s safe to assume it’ll be an incredibly popular production with a glittering cast, and will see Tarantino relocate his family to England so he can oversee rehearsals.
But, until then, maybe it’s time for a rewatch of Inglourious Basterds. After all, what better time to watch Nazis being brutally slaughtered in all kinds of imaginative ways?
