It’s hard to believe we’re already a quarter of the way through the 21st century. As a person who is merely bones, I remember the ball dropping to ring in the year 2000. When you think about all the movies that came out in that span of time, it feels like 50 years. Someone who always has their mind in the realm of older movies is Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino. Ever the historian and sayer of opinions, QT has recently listed his top 20 movies of the 21st century thus far. He did it in two sets of ten on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, with quotes of his descriptions of each film transcribed on World of Reel.
Tarantino, ever the iconoclast, has an interesting mix of movies. Some you might expect, some you might not. Here’s the full list below:
- 1. Black Hawk Down (2001) dir. Ridley Scott
- 2. Toy Story 3 (2010) dir. Lee Unkrich
- 3. Lost in Translation (2003) dir. Sofia Coppola
- 4. Dunkirk (2017) dir. Christopher Nolan
- 5. There Will Be Blood (2007) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
- 6. Zodiac (2007) dir. David Fincher
- 7. Unstoppable (2010) dir. Tony Scott
- 8. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller
- 9. Shaun of the Dead (2004) dir. Edgar Wright
- 10. Midnight in Paris (2011) dir. Woody Allen
- 11. Battle Royale (2000) dir. Kinji Fukasaku
- 12. Big Bad Wolves (2013) dir. Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado
- 13. Jackass: The Movie (2002) dir. Jeff Tremaine
- 14. School of Rock (2003) dir. Richard Linklater
- 15. The Passion of the Christ (2004) dir. Mel Gibson
- 16. The Devil’s Rejects (2005) dir. Rob Zombie
- 17. Chocolate (2008) dir. Prachya Pinkaew
- 18. Moneyball (2011) dir. Bennett Miller
- 19. Cabin Fever (2002) dir. Eli Roth
- 20. West Side Story (2011) dir. Steven Spielberg
Certainly an interesting smattering of films. Great stuff in there, also some that probably surprise, confuse, and confound people. Several directors on the list have been rightfully cancelled, but that’s apparently not a thing for the narrowly not-cancelled Tarantino. He’s also not one to mince on a backhanded compliment mixed in with the praise. If you read the transcript of all of his blurbs (over at Deadline), you’ll see he’s spitting fire.
He spends his blurb talking about Battle Royale bashing The Hunger Games:
“I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue [Hunger Games author] Suzanne Collins for every f*cking thing she owns. They just ripped off the f*cking 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 — they talked about how it was the most original f*cking thing they’d ever read. As soon as the film critics saw the film, they said, ‘What the f*ck, this is just Battle Royale except PG!’”
Yes, no one ever made anything about kids forced to kill each other before this movie.
For Midnight in Paris, it’s just about how he dislikes Owen Wilson:
“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, okay, don’t be such a pr*ck, he’s not so bad.’ Then the third time I watched it, I found myself only watching him.”
And perhaps the most aggressive, completely taking Paul Dano to the cleaners.
“There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being #1 or #2 if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it … and the flaw is Paul Dano. Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest f*cking actor in SAG [laughs].”
So. Pretty cool, I guess. For someone whose movies I tend to really enjoy, every time I listen to Tarantino speak, I wonder why. It’s pretty easy to talk about things you like without bashing the aspects of it you don’t like. “Easily my favorite Owen Wilson performance,” or “Battle Royale was incredibly influential and deserves more credit than it gets.” See? Easy. Anyway, enjoy this list. Most of the movies are good.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.