It's hard to pick a favorite Tarantino flick, but the man himself has finally
settled on his own number one choice, and it may surprise some of the director's biggest fans.
With three decades of filmmaking under his belt,
Quentin Tarantino is one of the foremost auteurs of his generation.
His filmography is full of rarely disputed classics like "Pulp Fiction" and "Inglourious
Basterds," and his material is known as much for its genre-bending as it is for
his penchant for hyperviolence and, of course, his predilection for close-up shots of people's feet.
His films have earned Academy Awards and drawn reactionary backlash in equal measure,
but what's undeniable is that each one is the product of a singular vision. A Tarantino
movie stands out in a lineup because they're movies no one else could have possibly made.
Tarantino has always been vocal about his opinions. Whether he's deriding the MCU or
ranking "Star Trek" over "Star Wars", he's not afraid of rocking the boat. However,
when it comes to his own work, he's been reluctant to pick a favorite movie from his catalog.
Lately, though, Tarantino has stepped away from the camera and turned to the
page. He published a novelization of his last film, 2019's "Once Upon a Time
in Hollywood," and now he's on a press tour promoting his nonfiction volume,
"Cinema Speculation." Recently, Tarantino visited "The Howard Stern Show" for a
wide-ranging interview during which he finally named which of his films he likes best.
"I really do think 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' is my best movie."
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as actor Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt as his stunt double Cliff Booth,
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" opened in 2019 to mostly positive critical reception. Set during
the heyday of Hollywood during the late 1960s, when Westerns were in vogue and Bruce Lee was
in his prime, the movie has been described as an ode to a bygone era of the film industry.
However, the real flourish on top of the proceedings comes
with Tarantino's decision to center the events of the film around the infamous
Tate-LaBianca murders committed by Charles Manson's followers.
Margot Robbie takes on the role of Sharon Tate, the young starlet murdered on that fateful day
in 1969. But in line with the director's previous historical revisionisms, the movie climaxes with
Dalton and Booth, who never existed in real life, inadvertently saving the day.
Tarantino holds back on his usual tendencies toward graphic violence
until that linchpin scene, then lets it erupt in truly stunning fashion as
the Manson Family members are taken out with a dog, fists, and a flamethrower.
"I love that stuff. All the killing."
"A lot of killing. Lot of killing."
Overall, it's a weird and wild movie that doesn't seem to care about audience sensibilities,
and it's branded with Tarantino's signature stylistic flourishes from
front to back. It's easy to see why the director would think it's his best work.
It's clear that Tarantino was given total leeway. The plot meanders through
deviations and digressions, cycles back on itself recursively, and,
because this is a Tarantino film, the camera fixates on its stars' feet for
uncomfortable amounts of time. It is, in the truest sense, a work of auteur filmmaking.
Yes, that means the movie is uneven and sometimes flawed, but that lends the film
its texture and personality. As Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wrote in his review,
However, other outlets, such as the Guardian, felt that "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" ceded a bit
too much ground to Tarantino's personal fears and hang-ups. Critic Wendy Ide noted that some of the
film's choices, like Booth's alleged history of violence toward women getting mentioned offhand,
feel like a jab at the #MeToo movement, while the story of two performers on a career decline can
easily be read as Tarantino's own fear of losing relevance after so much time in the sun. Still,
the reviewer acknowledges that the movie is clearly the product of a singular vision,
writing, "It's a film that could only have been made by one man."
Ultimately, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" might be the most "Tarantino" movie yet.
And for the venerated filmmaker himself, that's an achievement worth celebrating.
"We're all good."
"Don't need to go again?"
"No, we're done. That was fantastic."