Quentin Tarantino on one of cinema’s big questions: what is the best Tarantino movie?
Uma Thurman and director Quentin Tarantino on the set of Kill Bill.
It’s one of cinema’s most contested subjects: which Quentin Tarantino movie is the best?
The director himself has finally weighed in — while also sharing his personal favourite and which of his films he was “born to make”.
Speaking on podcast, the 62-year-old film-maker said his 2009 second world war drama was the best of his nine films, while his 2019 movie was his favourite.
“But I think is the ultimate Quentin movie, like nobody else could’ve made it,” he added, of his two-part martial arts thriller.
“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 is the movie I was born to make, I think is my masterpiece but is my favourite.”
Tarantino is famed for writing all the feature films he’s directed since his 1992 debut . When the conversation turned to screenplays, Tarantino said: “I think is my best script, and I think and are right behind.
“But, there’s an aspect of that I actually think is probably my best directing of my material, ie, the material is written and it’s solid,” he added. “So it’s not like I have to create it, like — it’s solid, it’s right there and I actually think it’s my best servicing [of] my material as a director.”
Tarantino has chosen not to direct his sequel to , which follows the fading actor Rick, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his stuntman, Cliff, played by Brad Pitt, in 1969 Los Angeles. Instead he handed the reins to David Fincher, who will direct for Netflix. Tarantino remains the writer and producer.
“I think me and David Fincher are the two best directors,” Tarantino said.
“So the idea that David Fincher actually wants to adapt my work, to me, shows a level of seriousness towards my work that I think needs to be taken into account.”
Tarantino revealed he is working on a play which will open in the West End of London in 2026 before returning to work on his final film.
He remains committed to retiring after his 10th film, having previously said: “Most directors have horrible last movies.”
On the podcast he said he had passed on directing because he felt “unenthused” about his final film being a sequel. He has only directed one sequel — — though he considers both parts of Kill Bill to be a single film.
“I love this script but I’m still walking down the same ground I’ve already walked,” Tarantino said of .
“It just kind of unenthused me. This last movie, I’ve got to not know what I’m doing again. I’ve got to be in uncharted territory.”
Tarantino’s final film was long rumoured to be , which was to star Pitt and follow a cynical film critic working in California in 1977. But in 2024 Tarantino abandoned his plans for the film, confirming on podcast that he had scrapped because he believed it was too similar to his past work.
“I wasn’t really excited about dramatising what I wrote when I was in pre-production, partly because I’m using the skill set that I learned from — ‘How are we going to turn Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969 without using CGI?’” he said.
“It was something we had to pull off. We had to achieve it. It wasn’t for sure that we could do it … , there was nothing to figure out. I already kind of knew, more or less, how to turn LA into an older time. It was too much like the last one.”
— The Guardian
