Everyone knows the Quentin Tarantino origin story.
Obsessed with film since he was a kid, and watching movies far too mature for his age, Tarantino is known for his encyclopaedic knowledge of all things cinema. He worked at a video rental shop for five years, by which point, he had already started writing his own work.
This is a guy who genuinely loves movies, and, in turn, people are always keen to hear what he thinks.
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On the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, Tarantino revealed his 20 picks of his top picks of the 21st century so far.
His selection criteria is personal to him, so many of his choices reflect a filmmaker whose own output has been characterised by violent sequences, high spectacle and a propensity to flip the bird to the orthodoxy.
“What is iconic to me, what is memorable to me, rather than to match wits with the Arthurs of the world, it’s these experiences,” Tarantino said on the podcast. “The idea was I didn’t look up anything, I just picked 20 movies straight from my brain, and if I couldn’t remember it, then it doesn’t make it.
“It had to be memorable. There’s a big thing about the filmmaking. Most of them have aggressive filmmaking. I’m impressed by that.”
Here are his choices and what he said about them, according to World of Reel.
20. WEST SIDE STORY (Steven Spielberg)
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Credit: Niko Tavernise/Fox
What is it: Steven Spielberg’s remake of the 1961 classic Steven Sondheim musical, a then-modern update of Romeo and Juliet, but with 1950s street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks.
What Tarantino said: “This is the one where Steven shows he still has it. I don’t think (Martin) Scorsese has made a film this exciting (this century). It revitalised (Spielberg).”
19. CABIN FEVER (Eli Roth)
Cabin Fever, by Eli Roth. Credit: Supplied
What is it: It’s always astonishing people still rent cabins in isolated locations because nothing good ever happens there. Here, it’s a flesh-eating disease.
What Tarantino said: “There’s something so charming. Eli’s sense of humour, sense of gore – it really, really works. Hostel might be his best movie, but this is my favourite.”
18. MONEYBALL (Bennett Miller)
Brad Pitt in Moneyball Credit: Supplied
What is it: If you love sports and you love statistics, Moneyball is for you. Based on a real-life story, it stars Brad Pitt as a baseball team GM and Jonah Hill as they scout and trade players to assemble a competitive side.
What Tarantino said: “Brad Pitt’s performance was one of my favourite star performances of the last 20 years – where a movie star came in and reminded you why he was a movie star.”
17. CHOCOLATE (Prachya Pinkaew)
Thai movie Chocolate. Credit: Supplied
What is it: This Thai movie is about the lovechild of a Thai mother and Japanese Yakuza father, who becomes a martial arts fighter to collect debts owed to her ailing mum.
What Tarantino said: “People getting f—cked up in the most spectacular of ways. This is some of the greatest kung-fu fights I’ve ever seen in a movie.”
Watch it: Not available on digital platforms in Australia
16. THE DEVIL’S REJECTS (Rob Zombie)
Scene from the film The Devil’s Rejects. Credit: Unknown/Supplied
What is it: A sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, it’s centred on the villainous family of its predecessor, as the sheriff chases them down, vowing revenge.
What Tarantino said: “This rough Peckinpah/cowboy/Manson thing (from Zombie), that voice didn’t really exist before, and he refined that voice with this movie. He melded it with sick hillbillies, and it’s become a thing now.”
15. THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (Mel Gibson)
Jim Caviezel, portraying Jesus Christ. Credit: AP/Philippe Antonello
What is it: Mel Gibson’s controversial epic about the final hours before Jesus’ death has divided opinions since before it was released – and many cited it as an example when Gibson’s anti-Semitism later emerged. He’s working on a sequel.
What Tarantino said: “I was laughing a lot during this movie. Not because we were trying to be perverse, laughing at Jesus getting f—ked up – extreme violence is just funny to me – and when you go so far beyond extremity, it just gets funnier and funnier.”
14. THE SCHOOL OF ROCK (Richard Linklater)
Jack Black in The School of Rock (2003) Credit: The School of Rock (2003)/The School of Rock (2003)
What is it: Jack Black plays a down-on-his-luck musician who tries to turn a group of talented schoolkids into a rock group for a battle of the bands competition.
What Tarantino said: “It was a really fun time at the theatres. It was a real fun, fun, fun screening. I do think this one had the explosion of Jack Black combined with Rick Linklater and Mike White – that made it special.”
13. JACKASS: THE MOVIE (Jeff Tremaine)
Jason “Wee-Man” Acuna (Jason Acuna) and Preston Lacy in Jackass: The Movie. Credit: MTV
What is it: It is what it says on the box, a feature version of Jackass’s TV series, a supercut of pranks and stunts.
What Tarantino said: “This was the movie I laughed at the most in these last 20 years. I don’t remember laughing from beginning to end like this since Richard Pryor.”
12. BIG BAD WOLVES (Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado)
Israeli movie Big Bad Wolves. Credit: Supplied
What is it: An Israeli horror-comedy-thriller about three adults who abducts a teacher to interrogate them about a schoolgirl murder.
What Tarantino said: “This has got a fantastic script and a similar storyline to (Denis Villeneuve’s) Prisoners. They handle it with guts and balls, you know the American movie wouldn’t do that.”
Watch it: Not available on digital platforms in Australia
11. BATTLE ROYALE (Kinji Fukasaku)
Japanese movie Battle Royale. Credit: Supplied
What is it: This was Hunger Games before Hunger Games, about a group of young high schoolers who are forced to battle to the death by a totalitarian government.
What Tarantino said: “I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue (Hunger Games author) Susan Collins for every f—king thing she owns. They just ripped off the f—king book. Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale so the stupid book critics never called her on it.
10. MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (Woody Allen)
Owen Wilson and Marion Cotillard in Midnight in Paris. Credit: Supplied
What is it: An aspiring American novelist has nostalgia for a 1920s Parisian past he idealises, and then finds a time travel portal which sends him back to the jazz age.
What Tarantino said: “I really can’t stand Owen Wilson. I spent the first time watching the movie loving it and hating him. The second time I watched it, I was like, ‘Ah, OK, don’t be such a prick, he’s not so bad’. Then the third time I watched it, I found myself only watching him.”
9. SHAUN OF THE DEAD (Edgar Wright)
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead. Credit: Supplied
What is it: A layabout salesman is the last person you’d expect to become a hero when the zombie apocalypse comes.
What Tarantino said: “The script is really terrific, it’s one of the most quotable films on this list, I still quote the line ‘the dogs don’t look up’. It’s not a spoof of zombie movies, it’s a real zombie movie, and I appreciate the distinction.”
8. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (George Miller)
Mad Max: Fury Road. Credit: Jasin Boland/Warner Bros
What is it: Sure, Max is a character in Fury Road, but this film belonged to Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, a warrior who takes on a powerful warlord in a desert wasteland.
What Tarantino said: “The great stuff is so great, and you’re watching a truly great filmmaker. He had all the money in the world and all the time in the world to make it exactly as he wanted.”
Watch it: Prime Video, Netflix, Stan
7. UNSTOPPABLE (Tony Scott)
Chris Pine and Denzel Washington in Unstoppable. Credit: Supplied
What is it: Based on a real-life incident, a freight train becomes out of control and a young conductor and veteran engineer must work together before it crashes into a nearby town.
What Tarantino said: “It’s one of the best monster movies of the 21st century. The train is a monster. The train becomes a monster, and it becomes one of the greatest monsters of our time. Stronger than Godzilla, stronger than those King Kong movies.”
6. ZODIAC (David Fincher)
Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal star in Zodiac. Credit: Merrick Morton; SM
What is it: A meticulous drama about the manhunt for the Zodiac killer who stalked the San Francisco Bay area and taunted detectives with clues and puzzles.
What Tarantino said: “Every six or seven years, watching it again, and it’s a luxurious experience that I give myself over to. Mesmerising masterwork.”
5. THERE WILL BE BLOOD (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon
What is it: A portrait of the distinctly American pursuit of wealth, captured in one man, a miner turned oil prospector during the Californian oil boom.
What Tarantino said: “Daniel Day-Lewis. The old-style craftsmanship quality to the film. It had an old Hollywood craftsmanship without trying to be like that.”
4. DUNKIRK (Christopher Nolan)
Dunkirk was released in 2017. Credit: AP
What is it: A multi-perspective portrayal of the frenzied evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk during World War II.
What Tarantino said: “The first time, it’s not like it left me cold – it was so kind of gobsmacking, I didn’t really know what I saw, it was almost too much, and then the second time I saw it, my brain was able to take it in a little bit more, and then the third and fourth time, it was just like, wow, it just blew me away.”
Watch it: Netflix, HBO Max
3. LOST IN TRANSLATION (Sofia Coppola)
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Credit: Supplied
What is it: An unlikely companionship between a middle-aged fading star and a young American woman who followed her husband to Japan.
What Tarantino said: “I fell so much in love with Lost in Translation that I fell in love with Sofia Coppola and made her my girlfriend. I courted and wooed her, and I did it all in public. It was like it was out of a Jane Austen novel.”
2. TOY STORY 3 (Lee Unkrich)
Toy Story 3. Credit: Pixar
What is it: When Woody, Buzz and Andy’s toys are accidentally donated to a childcare centre, the gang must confront their purpose and loyalties.
What Tarantino said: “The last five minutes ripped my f—king heart out, and if I even try to describe the end, I’ll start crying and get choked up. It’s just remarkable. It’s almost a perfect movie.”
1. BLACK HAWK DOWN (Ridley Scott)
Black Hawk Down starred Josh Hartnett and Eric Bana. Credit: AP/Sidney Baldwin
What is it: A heart-pounding, visceral and immersive piece of art about the horrors experienced by the crew of a black hawk helicopter shot down during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia.
What Tarantino said: “This is the only movie that actually goes completely for an Apocalypse Now sense of purpose and visual effect and feeling, and I think it achieves it. It keeps up the intensity for two hours and 45 minutes. I watched it again recently, my heart was going through the entire runtime of the movie, it had me and never let me go, and I hadn’t seen it in a while. The feat of direction is beyond extraordinary.”
Watch it: Netflix, Stan, Binge
