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 The Church of Tarantino podcast, the 62-year-old film-maker said his 2009 second world war drama Inglourious Basterds was the best of his nine films, while his 2019 movie Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood was his favourite.
“But I think Kill Bill 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 Kill Bill is the movie I was born to make, I think Inglourious Basterds is my masterpiece but Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is my favourite.”
Tarantino is famed for writing and directing all of his films since his 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs. When the conversation turned to screenplays, Tarantino said: “I think Inglourious Basterds is my best script, and I think Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood are right behind.
“But, there’s an aspect of Hateful Eight 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 Kill Bill – 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 Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, 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 The Adventures of Cliff Booth 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 The Adventures of Cliff Booth because he felt “unenthused” about his final film being a sequel. He has only directed one sequel – Kill Bill: Volume 2 – 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 The Adventures of Cliff Booth. “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 The Movie Critic, 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 The Church of Tarantino podcast that he had scrapped The Movie Critic 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 Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood – ‘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 … The Movie Critic, 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.”
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