Quentin Tarantino’s 20 favourite movies of the 21st Century
When Quentin Tarantino exploded onto the Hollywood scene in the early 1990s with his heist extravaganza Reservoir Dogs, the unique director provided a fresh new take on what it meant to create cinema. Not formed by fastidious film schools or brain-draining classrooms, Tarantino’s work bristled with the intensity of a director fuelled by the pure maniacal love of the craft.
While Tarantino’s approach is undeniably original, he frequently honours the cinematic giants on whose shoulders he stands. As a ’60s baby, he grew up during the heyday of legendary filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. These cinematic luminaries played a vital role in shaping Tarantino’s artistic sensibilities; taking the best aspects of each hero, he’s fought his way to the very top of Hollywood.
It’s a notion that has been poured into his creative work while on set and his advice for young filmmakers when off it. But while techniques may not be his strongest suit, and the ability to have and manifest his great taste is, Tarantino can show you a movie worth watching if you give him the moment to do so.
It was a movement he perfected while working at Video Archives in Los Angeles, able to provide any would-be video renter with the perfect movie for their proposed night in. Hot date? Tarantino knew which movie would kick things up a notch. A penchant for violence? Well, say no more. And it’s not something that stopped as his fame grew. Tarantino has spent a lot of time during interviews delivering reams and reams of movies that he holds dear. Today, we’ve compiled a special list of the most modern.
While many of our favourite directors have spent time picking out their favourite films of all time, most will focus don’t the foundational stones of modern cinema. Directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, and Akira Kurosawa will invariably be mentioned, while the same films will also usually find their way into the hallowed lists. While that is all well and good, sometimes it’s nice to hear what modern greats are to be found in the world of cinema. Thankfully, Tarantino is never one to stay quiet about a good film for long.
Across a range of interviews, Tarantino has noted some of the best films of this century, and it makes for an essential watch list that we should all pay attention to. It may not be a definitive list, as with most film lovers, Tarantino’s tastes change with time and season, but it offers a sincere view of some of the movies he enjoyed most from the century. Sure, the classics are highly regarded for a reason, but these movies offer up some of the sincerest visions of the great movies being made right now.
Of course, there is no better place to start than with the year 2000 and the untimely brilliance of Battle Royale, a film which has been regularly cited as one of Tarantino’s favourites of all time. “If there is any movie that has been made since I’ve been making movies that I wish I had made, it’s that one,” said Tarantino of director Kinji Fukasaku’s gory masterpiece.
Elsewhere in the list are some fabulous directors, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood naturally taking a spot. Tarantino often refers to this film as “one of the best movies made in this decade”. An Oscar-winning flick, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film won over the audience due to incredible performances, riveting narrative as well as harrowing music composed by Johnny Greenwood, which complemented the remorseless narrative.
Tarantino also rarely shies away from controversy and isn’t afraid to announce Lars Von Trier’s Dogville as another of his more cherished movies from the era. In fact, he praised Trier for producing what he called “maybe one of the greatest scripts ever written for film”. Tarantino also went on to say that “had [he] done it one the stage, he would have won a Pulitzer Prize”. Considering the source, that is no mean feat.
Tarantino was “blown away” by Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 film The Host which was widely popular in South Korea. He called it “absolutely wonderful” as Bong managed to recreate the entire genre. “In the U.S., scientists, soldiers and muscular superheroes fight against monsters, but in [The Host] a Korean family, a messed up, really idiotic one at that, fights the monster,” he said. “It’s funny because the whole idea that a family, not just any family, but a weird, fucked up family like in The Host would be the stars is unfathomable in the U.S. or any country. That is recreating the genre.”
The director is also a fan of horror, not only selecting the chill-inducing The Skin I Live In from director Pedro Almodovar but also the more comedy focused Shaun of the Dead by Edgar Wright. About the latter, Tarantino named it “my favourite British movie that has come out since I’ve been making movies”.
In more recent times, Tarantino has also shared his admiration for huge blockbusters such as Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Joseph Kosinski. For Tarantino, the tributes paid to his late friend tony Scott took things up a notch. “There was just this lovely, lovely aspect because I love both Tony Scott’s cinema so much, and I love Tony so much that that’s as close as we’re ever going to get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie,” Tarantino explained. “[Kosinski] did a great job. The respect and the love of Tony was in every frame. It was almost in every decision. It was consciously right there, but in this really cool way that was really respectful.”
Likewise, Tarantino also noted to Roger Avary that Steven Spielberg had provided a similar tribute to classic cinema with West Side Story from 2021. “Both,” he said, “provided a true cinematic spectacle, the kind that I’d almost thought that I wasn’t going to see anymore. It was fantastic.” Tarantino also called Christopher Nolan’s war epic, Dunkirk, “a symphony”, showcasing that his true love is for experience over expertise.
Dunkirk would take the second slot in Tarantino’s favourite films of the 2010s when he spoke with Premiere magazine. But his top slot was reserved for The Social Network, the Jesse Eisenberg film about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. “It’s The Social Network, hands down. It is number one because it’s the best, that’s all! It crushes all the competition,” the director noted.
There are a plethora more great movies which Tarantino has picked out over the years as some of his favourites, including Mad Max: Fury Road, which he called the best picture of 2015, Noah Baumbach’s brilliant Frances Ha from 2012, the wonderful third instalment of Toy Story 3 and Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void to complete a list of perfect 21st century movies. While we can’t be sure that this would be Tarantino’s definitive list, we are sure it is one he’d recommend everybody to watch.
Quentin Tarantino’s favourite movies from the 21st century:
- Battle Royale – Kinji Fukusaku (2000)
- There Will Be Blood – Paul Thomas Anderson (2007)
- Dogville – Lars von Trier (2003)
- Frances Ha – Noah Baumbach (2012)
- The Host – Bong Joon-ho (2006)
- *Memories of Murder – Bong Joon-ho (2003)
- *The Skin I Live In* – Pedro Almodovar (2011)
- Shaun of the Dead – Edgar Wright (2004)
- Young Adult – Jason Reitman (2011)
- Toy Story 3 – Disney (2010)
- Unbreakable – M. Night Shyamalan (2000)
- Top Gun: Maverick – Joseph Kosinski (2022)
- West Side Story – Steven Spielberg (2021)
- Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan (2017)
- Joint Security Area – Chan-wook Park (2000)
- Lost in Translation – Sofia Coppola (2003)
- Animal Kingdom – David Michôd (2010)
- Enter the Void – Gaspar Noé (2009)
- Mad Max: Fury Road – George Miller (2015)
- Team America: World Police – Trey Parker and Matt Stone (2004)
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