Quentin Tarantino is easily one of the favorite directors of our time. He is undoubtedly helped in that by the fact that he is one of the best, if not the greatest, movie fans ever to have lived. I mean, the guy even worked at a video store and loved his job!
He was born in 1963, so growing up in the 70s and 80s as a teen and then a young man, he was fascinated with the seventh art more than anybody. In fact, his movie “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood” heavily relies on his impressions and recollections of Hollywood at that time and earlier.
A Movie Fan and Critic
Quentin is and always was a fan first, which is why he enjoys directing because, as he says when you direct a picture and direct an actor, there’s a moment when it feels like they are doing it only for you. Now, that gives me the chills, don’t know about you.
Tarantino also has an online blog on The Beverly Cinema site. The section is called “Tarantino’s Reviews”, where you can read many of his own opinions and statements about some cool movies, many of them forgotten perhaps by the wide audience, many even unknown until now, so it is worth it.
Tarantino’s Top 20 Movies, with some of his own comments in the brackets:
Battle Royale (2000), by Kinji Fukasaku
Anything Else (2003), by Woody Allen (“the Jason Biggs one”)
Audition (1999), by Takashi Miike
The Blade (1995), by Tsui Hark
Boogie Nights (1997), by Paul Thomas Anderson
Dazed and Confused (1993), by Richard Linklater (“the greatest hangout movie ever made”)
Dogville (2003), by Lars von Trier
Fight Club (1999), by David Fincher
Friday (1995), by F. Gary Gray
The Host (2006), Bong Joon-ho
The Insider (1999), by Michael Mann
Joint Security Area (2000), by Park Chan-wook
Lost in Translation (2003), by Sofia Coppola
The Matrix (1999), by The Wachowskis (“though its sequels ruined the mythology for me”)
Memories of Murder (2003), by Bong Joon-ho
Police Story 3: Supercop (1992), by Stanley Tong (“contains the greatest stunts ever filmed in any movie”)
Shaun of the Dead (2004), by Edgar Wright
Speed (1994), by Jan de Bont (“there have been few exhilaration movies quite like it”)
Team America: World Police (2004), by Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Unbreakable (2000), by M. Night Shyamalan
