While his constant threat of retirement continues to lurk in the shadows, the best that the rest of us mortals can do is enjoy his cinema whenever we have a little while.
‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is the ninth and last film by Quentin Tarantino . And as always, as every time he has released a new work, the controversy is served.
Either due to the quality of the film (something that is always above the rest of the competitors), due to the fetishistic habits of anyone involved in the work or due to the lack of decorum of a director who has continuously shown that correctness, the further , better , ‘Once upon a time in Hollywood’ is one of the buzz phrases of the summer.
With a new cast of bells, something that has not been lacking even in his very small debut, Tarantino travels to the bowels of the golden age of pre-revolutionary Hollywood to play the movies in his most meta work , but also more personal. Thief, honorer, talented, genius. There is a Tarantino for each of us . Let’s order his tapes from worst to best:
9. Django Unchained
Tarantino’s first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for a Solo Screenplay belongs, surprisingly, to his laziest, most stilted and forced film . ‘Django Unchained’, his first western, gives us some wonderful moments, an endearing interpretation (also awarded) by Christoph Waltz and little else. Maybe, who knows, the vaunted extended version of him will improve the final result.
8. Kill Bill
Quentin Tarantino has settled the issue: “it is a single film.” This benefits the first installment above all, an action toy that was doomed to age without the love that its second volume exudes. Epic and dry as the bloody desert, beautiful dialogues, broken people and a Robert Richardson in his fullness dye yellow and scarlet red a revenge that, perhaps, has not yet ended.
7. Reservoir Dogs
In the glorious nineties, with video stores in full swing, oriental action movies at their best, and print movie magazines as the only monthly film reference, our gurus at the time warned us of two things: that a talented guy was coming and who seemed to have soaked up all the movies there have been and to have . His musical universe also began here. ‘Reservoir Dogs’ started it all.
6. The Hateful Eight
Maybe Tarantino knew that his previous western wasn’t quite right , so he decided to repeat the genre and perfect everything that was already in Django. ‘The Hateful Eight’ is another Tarantino falter, but also before his “smallest” film since ‘Reservoir Dogs’.
A location, a handful of characters and two clearly differentiated parts. The first, more traditional, is all mouthpiece. The second, the modern one, is a hilarious outrage. Few faults can be put to a movie that makes jokes with its own mistakes . Fabulous Morricone, fabulous Richardson and fabulous Nicotero and Berger. Tarantino’s first horror movie is also one of his funniest.
5. Once upon a time in… Hollywood
His new film is a perfect summary of the reasons why he has created his own universe : to live in it and remember his glory days as a blind old man. To remember his Hollywood. This was once in Hollywood, but in Tarantino’s.
Despite plenty of familiar faces being resurrected to set the mood, none come to have more depth or importance than two of the most finely written characters of his career . Rick and Cliff are the most endearing and beloved characters of his career since the days of ‘Jackie Brown’, a movie as melancholic as this one but almost seemed earthy. His new movie is not, but as a justification for the existence of a universe in which to feel comfortable and safe , it is perfect.
4. Inglourious Basterds
The only way to have improved this shameless epic, halfway between the exploits of war and the cinema of Enzo G. Castellari from which it borrows the title, would have been for Adam Sandler to be given the ok to play the role that ended up in the hands of Eli Roth. . Ambitious, uncomfortable, violent and, as always, hilarious. ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is, among other things, the home of what, according to the director himself, is the best character he has created: Hans Landa .
3. Pulp Fiction
Watching ‘Pulp Fiction’ now, after so many years, is like when you come home for parties and have a few drinks with colleagues. In those cases there is always a lot to talk about after such a long time, because you got married, bought a car or learned a new language, but in the end you always end up remembering the two or three stories that forged that long-standing friendship . . And you end up toasting the same old stories.
2. Jackie Brown
Tarantino’s only non-original screenplay becomes his coming-of-age film . So much so that it still continues as such more than twenty years later. The best characters, the ones most loved by the director, came out of the pages of a novel by Elmore Leonard known as ‘Explosive Cocktail’ during the good old days of the CÃrculo de lectores. With as much bile as heart, and the best musical selection of his cinema, ‘Jackie Brown’ is an indisputable masterpiece.
1. Death Proof
Tarantino gets playful, and in full fashion to recover grindhouse and exploitation movies, he decides to team up with Robert RodrÃguez (and friends) and bet on the winning horse with a spectacular double bill. If ‘Planet Terror’ turned out to be RodrÃguez’s best film, Tarantino’s move is a delirious return to the glory days of the finest eurotrash.
