Quentin Tarantino’s Favorite Movies: 61 Films the Director Wants You to See

‘Showgirls’

Tarantino showed how cutting-edge his cinephilia is in a 1996 interview with Details magazine in which he praised Paul Verhoeven’s astonishing satire of sex and capitalism, ‘Showgirls.’ This was at a time when the prevailing view of ‘Showgirls’ was negative, its later reappraisal still in the distance. As reprinted in Gerald Peary’s book, ‘Quentin Tarantino: Interviews,’ he said, ‘I thought ‘Showgirls’ was fucking great. I’m thinking about writing an article in Film Comment in complete and utter defense of ‘Showgirls.’’

‘The thing that’s great about ‘Showgirls,’ and I mean great with a capital great, is that only one other time in the last 20 years has a major studio made a full-on, gigantic, big-budget exploitation movie: ‘Mandingo,’ which is one of my favorite movies. ‘Showgirls’ is the ‘Mandingo’ of the ‘90s. And the thing is, what’s so great about it is that no one else but Paul Verhoeven would have the balls to shoot that the way it should be shot. He knew he was making an exploitation movie.’

“Friday” (1995)

In a 2009 interview with Sky News, Tarantino revealed that one of his favorite films since 1992 is “Friday.” The 1995 cult favorite comedy from F. Gary Gray stars Ice Cube and Chris Tucker as two unemployed friends who run into trouble when they become debted to a local drug dealer. —WC

“Anything Else” (2003)

One of the most panned films in Woody Allen’s career, 2003’s “Anything Else” stars Jason Biggs as a neurotic comedy writer who falls for a beautiful but flighty woman (Christina Ricci). Tarantino disagrees with the critical consensus of the film, putting it on his list of favorite movies since 1992. —WC

“A Man Called Horse” (1970)

At the start of “Cinema Speculation,” Tarantino fondly remembers going to the movies with his family as a child. He’s got particularly warm memories of movie-going in 1970. Tarantino remember the year as one in which he “saw a lot of intense shit,” including Elliot Silverstein’s “A Man Called Horse.” It’s a western about a white aristocrat held captive by the Sioux, starring Richard Harris in one of his more grueling performances. 

“The eagle-claws-through-the-chest initiation rite in ‘A Man Called Horse’ blew my fucking mind,” the filmmaker wrote. —AF

“House of Dark Shadows” (1970)

Continuing to remember his favorite flicks from 1970 in “Cinema Speculation,” Tarantino praised Dan Curtis’ vampire horror film “House of Dark Shadows” alongside “A Man Called Horse.” He was intensely impacted by Barnabas Collins’ “blood-squirting slow-motion wooden-stake evisceration.”

Tarantino said of the gothic film and the western, “I remember, during both moments, staring at the screen with my mouth wide open, not quite believing a movie could do that. On those nights, I’m sure I was the vocal one on the car ride home (I thought those movies were incredible).” —AF

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)

Promoting his book “Cinema Speculation” in October 2022, Tarantino was asked about his definition of a perfect film. During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Kimmel specifically inquired about “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”: a film the talk show host said he was surprised to learn qualified for the director’s short list of flawless cinema. Tarantino didn’t expand on his love for “Texas Chainsaw” during that interview (though he devotes a few paragraphs to the endeavor in his book), but he did offer: “There’s not many [perfect movies] and that just bemoans the fact that the film art form is hard…A perfect movie kind of crosses all aesthetics: might not be your cup of tea, but there’s nothing you can say to bring it down.” —AF

“Eaten Alive” (1976)

Instead of furthing praising “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Tarantino uses most of the Tobe Hooper section of his book to reevaluate the director’s broader filmography. He specifically praises “Eaten Alive,” celebrating its sleaziness, scares, and the undeniably hilarious villain catchprase: “My name’s Buck, and I’m here to fuck.” 

“We laughed about that Buck/fuck line for the first whole twenty minutes of the movie (the most serious part of the film),” Tarantino said. “Consequently, we didn’t love the movie, but we loved watching the movie. On the drive home, we laughed ourselves silly about the Buck/fuck line all over again.” —AF

“Nightmare Alley” (1957)

Also in the Tobe Hooper section of “Cinema Speculation,” Tarantino considers “The Funhouse” at length. In doing so, he draws comparison to 1947’s “Nightmare Alley,” from director Edmund Goulding. 

“While ‘Nightmare Alley’ is rightly considered a classic, I still think it’s underrated,” he said. “To me, ‘Nightmare Alley’ is as good as studio filmmaking ever gets. Tyrone Power (who I’ve never been fond of) is fucking sensational in the movie. And the script adaptation by Jules Furthman (one of my handful of nomineess for greatest Hollywood screenwriter of all time) is excellent.” —AF

“Young Frankenstein” (1974)

During a 2022 “Jimmy Kimmel Live” appearance to promote “Cinema Speculation,” Tarantino shared a very short list of the films he deemed to be perfect movies, ones that nobody can find flaw in even if they aren’t their cup of tea. One of his choices was “Young Frankenstein,” Mel Brooks’ classic and loving spoof of the “Frankenstein” horror films starring Gene Wilder as Frederick Frankenstein (it’s pronounced Fronkensteen). —WC

“Back to the Future” (1985)

Another film from Tarantino’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” appearance that he spotlighted as an undeniably great film is the first “Back to the Future,” Robert Zemeckis’ iconic ’80s touchstone. “It’s a perfect movie!” Tarantino said about the teen sci-fi comedy, about Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) journey through time to ensure his parents fall in love. —WC

“Rolling Thunder” (1977)

“When I first saw ‘Rolling Thunder’ with my mother and her boyfriend Marco in 1977 on the film’s opening night in Los Angeles, on a double feature with ‘Enter the Dragon,’ it blew my fucking mind!” Tarantino writes in “Cinema Sepculation,” explaining how the John Flynn thriller shaped his critical voice. 

He continued, “I loved ‘Rolling Thunder’ so much that year before it became available on Vestron Home Video — for a period of ten years — I followed it all over Los Angeles, whenever and wherever it played… What I used to claim about ‘Rolling Thunder’ was it was the best combination of character study and action film ever made. And it still is.” —AF

“Matador” (1986)

In “Cinema Speculation,” Tarantino describes how his approach to onscreen violence was shaped by Pedro Almodóvar’s “Matador”: a 1986 erotic thriller starring Antonio Banderas. 

“I remember when I worked at my Manhattan Beach video store, Video Archives, and talked to the other employees about the types of movies I wanted to make, and the things I wanted to do inside of those movies. And I would use the example of the opening of Almodovar’s ‘Matador,’” Tarantino wrote. “And their response would be, ‘Quentin, they won’t let you do that.’ To which I replied back, ‘Who the fuck are ‘they’ to stop me? ‘They’ can go fuck themselves.’”

“At the right age (mid-twenties), and at the right time (the fucking eighties), the fearlessness demonstrated by Pedro Almodóvar led by example,” he continued. “As I watched my heroes, the American film mavericks of the seventies, knuckle under to a new way of doing business just to stay employed, Pedro’s fearlessness made a mockery of their calculated compromises. My dreams of movies always included a comic reaction to unpleasantness, similar to the connection that Almodovar’s films made between the unpleasant and the sensual.” —AF

“The Great Silence” (1968)

Tarantino has never tried to hide his admiration for legendary Spaghetti Western director Sergio Corbucci. For “Django Unchained,” he borrowed the name of Corbucci’s most famous protagonist, Django, and when it was time to make his second Western, he took another page out of the Corbucci playbook and set it in the snow.

Before “The Hateful Eight” came out, the most famous winter-set Western movie was Sergio Corbucci’s “The Great Silence.” In a 2012 essay in the New York Times Magazine, Tarantino explained that his admiration for the film goes far beyond its creative setting.

“‘Il Grande Silenzio’ has one of the most nihilistic endings of any western. Trintignant goes out to face the bad guys — and gets killed. The bad guys win, they murder everybody else in the town, they ride away and that’s the end of the movie. It’s shocking to this day,” he wrote. “’Silenzio’ takes place in the snow — I liked the action in the snow so much, ‘Django Unchained’ has a big snow section in the middle of the movie.” —CZ

“The Thing” (1982)

In an interview with Stephen Colbert from June 2022, Tarantino and the late night host discussed their mutual appreciation for John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?”: the 1938 sci-fi novella that inspired “The Thing.” Their conversation quickly took them to 1951’s “The Thing from Another World” (a classic Tarantino also loves) and, of course, the legendary 1982 John Carpenter flick starring Kurt Russell. 

“Rob Bottin’s effects in that movie are some of the greatest practical special effects ever put on a movie theater screen,” Tarantino began. “It’s one of the greatest horror movies ever made, if not one the greatest movies ever made.”

He continued: “One of the reasons that ‘The Thing’ holds a special place in my heart is that I love horror movies — I’m a big horror movie fan — but I don’t get scared in horror movies. I respond to suspense. I respond to that. ‘Oh, what’s going to happen next?’ I can jump by a boo scare. But that’s not really terror… ‘The Thing’ I got scared in.” —AF

“The Wild Bunch”

Another recommendation pulled from Tarantino’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” interview in October 2022, the filmmaker described Sam Peckinpah’s revisionist Western “The Wild Bunch” as “not perfect,” before explaining: “Its imperfections are part of its glory.” —AF

“Top Gun: Maverick”

Quentin Tarantino rarely speaks about the work of other contemporary filmmakers, preferring to focus on drawing attention to classic films. But sometimes, a movie is so good that he just can’t help himself. “Top Gun: Maverick” was one of those movies. In a recent appearance on the ReelBlend podcast, Tarantino praised the way Joseph Kosinski captured the magic of his “True Romance” director Tony Scott’s original film. “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 said. “[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.” —CZ

“Rio Bravo”

Even the most casual cinephile could watch Howard Hawks’ “Rio Bravo” and instantly understand why Tarantino likes it so much. It’s essentially a long hangout movie about three guys shooting the shit in the Old West, until it suddenly ends with a gloriously violent shootout. The film, which stars John Wayne as a sheriff who holds a dangerous outlaw in custody with the help of a drunk and a talented yet arrogant young gunfighter, is one of the biggest influences on Tarantino’s filmography. The film is so essential to the director’s identity that he famously said, “Whenever I’m getting serious with a girl, I show her ‘Rio Bravo,’ and she better fucking like it.” —CZ

“Blow Out”

Every time you watch the dancing scene from “Pulp Fiction,” you should thank “Blow Out” for making it happen. Tarantino loved John Travolta’s performance in this Brian De Palma thriller — about a sound editor who accidentally records a murder — so much that he set out to write the perfect role to save the actor’s career. Most cinephiles would agree that he did just that. But Tarantino’s love for “Blow Out” extends far beyond Travolta’s performance. He famously called the movie “some of Brian De Palma’s finest film,” adding that it “means it’s one of the greatest films ever made because as we all know Brian De Palma is one of the finest directors of his generation.” —CZ

“West Side Story” (2021)

Quentin Tarantino may not strike the average observer as a big musical guy, but his knowledge of and passion for film history is unparalleled. That likely led to his appreciation for Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake of “West Side Story,” a film that he said brought an old school sense of spectacle back to the multiplexes. “[‘Top Gun: Maverick’] and Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story.’ Both provided a true cinematic spectacle, the kind that I’d almost thought that I wasn’t going to see anymore. It was fantastic. —CZ

“Unfaithfully Yours”

Tarantino has made no secret of his love for legendary comedy filmmaker Preston Sturges. He once remarked that he calms himself down after disappointing Oscar losses by remembering that “Preston Sturges is maybe a better writer than all the guys who have ever won before, and he didn’t win shit.” While Sturges wrote plenty of comedy classics including “Sullivan’s Travels” and “The Palm Beach Story,” Tarantino’s favorite is the 1948 screwball comedy “Unfaithfully Yours,” which he once declared was the ninth greatest film of all time. —CZ

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

Quentin Tarantino’s favorite cut in movie history arrives two hours and 45 minutes into Sergio Leone’s 1966 Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Three gunslingers have been competing to find buried Confederate gold and their search climaxes in a Mexican standoff inside a bullring at Sad Hill Cemetery. Ennio Morricone’s score sets the tension as Blondie, Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), and Tuco (Eli Wallach) get into formation and prepare to draw their guns. When the music peaks, Leone cuts to a wide shot of the Mexican standoff in full view.

“That’s easy,” Tarantino told Empire magazine when asked about his favorite shot in the film. “During the three-way bullring showdown at the end, the music builds to the giant orchestra crescendo, and when it gets to the first big explosion of the theme there’s a wide shot of the bullring. After you’ve seen all the little shots of the guys getting into position, you suddenly see the whole wideness of the bullring and all the graves around them. It’s my favorite shot in the movie, but I’ll even say it’s my favorite cut in the history of movies.” —ZS

“Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”

“‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein’ was probably my favorite movie when I was really, really, really young,” Tarantino once told SiriusXM. “And the thing about why I think it was so influential was that I remember at that time period my two favorite movies in the world were monster movies, the Universal monster movies from the 1930s, and physical comedies. When I watched this movie, it bended my mind that my two favorite genres, even though I didn’t know what genre meant, could be put into one movie. I didn’t know you could do that! I was a little boy at seven or eight making genre distinctions, and I’ve been trying to mash them up for the rest of my career.” —ZS

“Dunkirk”

Tarantino revealed on The Ringer’s “Rewatchables” podcast that Christopher Nolan’s World War II survival thriller “Dunkirk” was his second favorite movie of the 2010s. “Dunkirk” had been in the number seven position for quite some time but rose to the second slot after Tarantino watched the feature for a third time.

“I had an interesting experience with it the first couple of times,” Tarantino said of the film. “The first time I saw it, I don’t know what I was thinking the first time. I just dealt with the spectacle of it all. I couldn’t deal with anything else but the spectacle of it all. I liked the movie, but the spectacle almost numbed me to the experience. I don’t think I felt anything emotional. I was awed by it. But I didn’t know what I was awed by. It wasn’t until the third time that I could see past the spectacle and into the people the story is about. I finally could see through the trees a little bit.”

The filmmaker continued, “Oftentimes, you see a film where the style is about the adrenaline of it. The style is an immersive experience, but by the third or fourth viewing you get past the style and you realize the magician’s tricks. In the case of ‘Dunkirk,’ it rewards Nolan’s efforts to see it more. There’s a point, by mid movie, he can’t do it wrong. It’s a symphony. Nothing doesn’t work.” —ZS

“Black Sabbath”

Quentin Tarantino said in a video interview with SiriusXM that Mario Bava’s 1964 horror movie “Black Sabbath” was one of the top three most influential movies on his directing style. “Bava is one of the first directors I got to know by name because I saw ‘Black Sabbath’ on late night television and would get excited to see it pop up again, and it has this cool operatic quality about it,” Tarantino said. “Sergio Leone and Mario Bava got me thinking in terms of shots…I recognized a cinematic style, signature, and quality to the movies that went beyond the movie just being good or not. Even when I saw a Bava movie I didn’t like, I still recognized that same operatic quality.” —ZS

“Deep Red”

Dario Argento’s 1975 giallo classic “Deep Red” is one of the seminal horror films that left its mark on Tarantino as a teenager. The director saw the film when he was around 15 years old, and it rattled him to the bone. “I went to a theater on my own to see it, and that was before I knew who Dario Argento was,” Tarantino said last year on Eli Roth’s AMC horror docu-series. “I didn’t even know it was an Italian movie. I go and see it and it’s these horrendous murders and horrendous kills one after another with just complete sadism. Not only just a tremendous amount of blood but also the loudest soundtrack I’d ever heard in a movie just pounding at you. A woman scalded to death! That was like, ‘Wow this movie is really tough stuff,’ but it was thrilling. It was absolutely thrilling.” —ZS

“The Social Network”

If “Dunkirk” was Quentin Tarantino’s second favorite movie of the 2010s, then what was his first? The answer is David Fincher’s “The Social Network.” According to Tarantino, Fincher’s 2010 Facebook drama was always out in front and it was never a close race for the “best of the decade” title. The filmmaker told Premiere magazine, “It’s ‘The Social Network,’ hands down. It is number one because it’s the best, that’s all! It crushes all the competition.” Tarantino went on to call screenwriter Aaron Sorkin “the greatest active dialogist.”

“The Social Network” ranked #16 on IndieWire’s list of the best films of the 2010s. “There are timely films, and then there’s ‘The Social Network,’ which was good enough back in 2010 to notch eight Oscar noms and somehow seems as fierce and prescient and essential now, nearly a decade later,” IndieWire deputy editor Kate Erbland wrote of the film. “Pre-dating fake news, the rise of Twitter, and whatever the hell Tik Tok is, ‘The Social Network’ is both a thrilling, queasy exploration of how Facebook came to be and a searing indictment of what it would inevitably become.” —ZS

“Easy Rider”

Dennis Hopper’s 1969 counterculture landmark “Easy Rider” was one of Tarantino’s picks for moviegoers to watch before seeing his “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” The director told TCM, “It’s the single greatest example of 1960s cinema in every way: the culture it projects, the aesthetic it projects, and even the idea that finally a movie and the counterculture hooked up with each other in a way where the people of that culture accepted that. It’s one of the most specific movies ever released by a Hollywood studio that is specific to its era. It captures the 1960s in a way that’s tangible. Almost in a way, if you’re trying to describe to someone the 1960s in movies you could show them ‘Easy Rider’ and never have to show them anything else.” —ZS

“Apocalypse Now”

Tarantino named Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war epic “Apocalypse Now” one of the best movies ever made on his Sight & Sound Top 10 list. The Palme d’Or winner is Tarantino’s favorite Coppola movie, even above “The Godfather” movies. Tarantino loves “Apocalypse Now” so much that he worked a reference to the film into the screenplay of 1993’s “True Romance.” When Christian Slater’s character attempts to flatter the producer of a fictional war movie, he can’t help but say, “After ‘Apocalypse Now,’ I think it’s the best Vietnam movie ever.” —ZS

“Audition”

Takashi Miike’s 1999 horror movie “Audition” is often cited as one of the most disturbing and brutal films ever made. Tarantino called the movie one of his favorites since he’s been a director, referring to it as a “true masterpiece” in a 2009 interview. The film stars Ryo Ishibashi as a widower who stages an audition to find a potential new wife. Eihi Shiina plays the woman who catches the widower’s eye, although Shiina’s character has a dark past that affects their relationship in unpredictable ways. —ZS

“Joint Security Area”

In the same 2009 video interview in which Tarantino suggested “Audition,” he recommended Chan-wook Park’s 2000 film “Joint Security Area”: an edge-of-your-seat thriller set against the border between North and South Korea. —AF

“The Insider”

Following “Joint Security Area” (listed at number 11), Tarantino plugged Michael Mann’s “Insider” in the same 2009 video interview. The 1999 mutliple Academy Award nominee stars Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. —AF

“Lost in Translation”

After “Audition,” “Joint Security Area,” and “Insider,” Tarantino listed Sophia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” — a heartbreaking existential two-hander, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson — among his favorite films in a 2009 interview. —AF

“The Bad News Bears”

“The Bad News Bears” is perhaps the most surprising entry on Tarantino’s Sight & Sound poll naming the best movies ever made. Michael Ritchie’s 1976 comedy famously stars Walter Matthau as an alcoholic former baseball player who evades a lawsuit by agreeing to coach a group of non-athletic little leaguers. Cast member Tatum O’Neal revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that Tarantino was such a fan of the movie that he wrote her a letter: “The film had such an impact on boys. Guys my age are always saying, ‘You were my first love.’ Quentin Tarantino told me I was the first fan letter he’d ever written. I was flattered. I think my grandmother threw it away.” —ZS

“Battle Royale”

In a 2009 video interview, Tarantino called Kinji Fukasaku’s 2000 dystopian thriller “Battle Royale” his favorite movie to come out in the last 17 years. “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,” he said. —ZS

“Boogie Nights”

Tarantino has referred to Paul Thomas Anderson as a “friendly competitor” over the years, but there’s no doubt the former is one of the latter’s biggest admirers. Tarantino picked Anderson’s breakout porn industry drama “Boogie Nights” as one of the best movies released after 1992, the year Tarantino started making movies. Although that’s not to say the film is without flaws. Tarantino’s one issue with “Boogie Nights” involves Burt Reynolds’ character.

“I think Burt Reynolds is fantastic in the movie,” Tarantino said. “Me and Paul have talked about this, though. I actually think there is a slight flaw in ‘Boogie Nights,’ and the flaw is the perception of the Burt Reynolds’ character. Paul can say he’s not based on the director Gerard Damiano, who directed ‘Deep Throat,’ but he obviously is. He looks exactly like him, and Damiano has a very unique look. Burt Reynolds doesn’t look like that, so you actually have to go out of your way to make him look like Damiano. That’s not Burt Reynold’s look, that is Gerard Damiano’s look.” —ZS

“Carrie”

Brian De Palma’s “Carrie” is Tarantino’s favorite horror movie ever and was the only horror title included on the director’s 2012 list of the best films of all time for Sight & Sound. “Carrie” is adapted from the book by Stephen King and made a huge star out of Sissy Spacek. “Carrie” shaped the way Tarantino approaches violence in his movies, with the director telling De Palma himself in an interview, “As a filmmaker, when you deal in violence, you’re actually penalized for doing a good job.” De Palma responded, “Absolutely.” —ZS

“Dazed and Confused”

Richard Linklater’s beloved stoner coming-of-age classic “Dazed and Confused” was listed by Tarantino as one of the 10 best films of all time. The film, which Tarantino calls “the greatest hangout movie ever made,” was a breakout platform for young actors Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey, and Ben Affleck. —ZS

“Dogville”

Tarantino says Lars von Trier’s “Dogville” features “maybe one of the greatest scripts ever written for film.” The drama stars Nicole Kidman and was shot on a stage as if it were a play. Tarantino argues that had von Trier made “Dogville” a theatrical production he would have won the Pulitzer Prize. —ZS

“Enter the Void”

Gaspar Noé’s psychedelic melodrama “Enter the Void” was included on Tarantino’s best movies of 2010 list. The director wrote the film has “hands down the best credit scene of the year, maybe best credit scene of the decade. One of the greatest in cinema history.” —ZS

“Fight Club”

David Fincher’s “Fight Club” was included on Tarantino’s list of the best movies released from 1992 to 2009. “Fight Club” star Brad Pitt would go on to be one of Tarantino’s most starry featured actors, leading the director’s “Inglourious Basterds” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” —ZS

“Frances Ha”

Tarantino named Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s “Francis Ha” one of the 10 best movies of 2013 along with Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight,” Jill Soloway’s “Afternoon Delight,” Joe Swanberg’s “Drinking Buddies,” and James Wan’s “The Conjuring.” In a 2015 interview with Vulture, Tarantino named Baumbach one of the younger directors he was most excited about, saying, “There’s a Paul Mazursky quality to his films.” —ZS

“The Great Escape”

John Sturges’ 1963 POW drama “The Great Escape” stars Steve McQueen in one of his most iconic roles and was named one of the 10 best movies ever made by Tarantino. The film’s central motorcycle chase is often regarded as one of cinema’s best action scenes and has been used as inspiration for Tarantino films like “Death Proof.” —ZS

“The Host”

Tarantino said Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 monster film left him “blown away” when he saw it for the first time. The movie was a giant hit in South Korea, becoming the highest grossing domestic release at the time with over 13 million tickets sold. Tarantino calls the film “absolutely wonderful.” When Boon Joon Ho won the Oscar for Best Director, he gave Tarantino a shot out for always championing his Korean-language movies in the U.S. when they were released. —ZS

“His Girl Friday”

Howard Hawks’ 1940 screwball comedy-romance “His Girl Friday” features the iconic pairing of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Tarantino included the film on his list of the 10 best movies ever made, and it’s unsurprising a master of dialogue would have a soft spot for a screwball classic. —ZS

“Jaws”

Tarantino’s 2012 Sight & Sound poll naming the best films ever made included Steven Spielberg’s shark thriller “Jaws.” The film is widely credited as changing the landscape of Hollywood moviemaking and introducing the industry to its very first summer blockbuster event picture. Tarantino has famously compared the movie to a rubber band that a filmmaker stretches for as far as it’ll hold. —ZS

“Mad Max: Fury Road”

Tarantino named George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” the best movie of 2015. Speaking to Premiere magazine, the director said, “I got a print of ‘Mad Max’ on 35mm and I watched it in my house, and I had it all weekend and I ended up watching it three different times.” —ZS

“The Matrix”

Tarantino is not a fan of the two “Matrix” sequels (“They ruined the mythology for me,” he said in a video interview), but he holds the original 1999 movie in high regard. The director named the Wachowski sibling’s breakout blockbuster one of the best titles released since he’s been directing. —ZS

“Memories of Murder”

Bong Joon-ho’s 2003 murder mystery and police procedural “Memories of Murder” has been called “one of the most interesting and complex movies” of the 21st century by Tarantino. Bong is easily one of Tarantino’s most beloved directors working today. —ZS

“Police Story 3: Super Cop”

Stanley Tong’s 1992 action comedy “Police Story 3: Super Cop” stars Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh and features “the greatest stunts filmed in any movie, and that includes Buster Keaton,” says Tarantino. —ZS

“Shaun Of The Dead”

“It’s my favorite British movie that has come out since I’ve been making movies,” Tarantino said of Edgar Wright’s zombie comedy “Dawn of the Dead,” starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Tarantino and Wright formed a movie club during the pandemic and found themselves getting suggestions from the likes of Martin Scorsese, who sent over a list of over 30 British hidden gems. —ZS

“The Skin I Live In”

Pedro Almodóvar’s psychological horror film “The Skin I Live In” was named one of the best movies of 2011 by Tarantino. The film, about a disturbed plastic surgeon holding a young woman hostage to be his test subject, marked the director’s first project with Antonio Banderas in over two decades. —ZS

“Sorcerer”

Just because Tarantino prefers “Carrie” over “The Exorcist” doesn’t mean he lacks an affinity for “Exorcist” director William Friedkin. “Sorcerer,” Friedkin’s 1977 thriller starring Roy Scheider, was included on Tarantino’s Sight & Sound poll naming the 10 best films of all time. —ZS

“Speed”

“It might be easy to take Speed for granted now,” Tarantino said in an interview of Jan de Bont’s thriller with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, “but if you remember when ‘Speed’ came out and what it was like to sit in the movie theater as that bus was going down the road, there really has been few exhilaration movies like it.” —ZS

“Taxi Driver”

Tarantino has called Martin Scrosese’s “Taxi Driver” “unarguably one of the greatest movies ever made” and “the greatest first-person character-study ever committed to film.” The director is also a fan of Scorsese’s “Hugo,” which landed on his best films of 2011 list. —ZS

“Team America: World Police”

Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s war on terror satire “Team America: World Police” is one of Tarantino’s favorite movies since 1992. The puppet comedy didn’t make the kind of impact that Parker and Stone’s “South Park” or “Book of Mormon” did, but it’s become a cult classic nonetheless. —ZS

“There Will Be Blood”

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar winner “There Will Be Blood” is considered by many to be one of the best movies of the 21st century, and Tarantino is among them. Speaking to Brit Sky Movies in 2009, the director referred to the film as “one of the best movies made in this decade.” One of the things Tarantino told Anderson after he watched the film was how great the movie was despite there being no prolonged cinematic set pieces. “Then I saw the film again and I was completely wrong,” Tarantino said in an interview. “Putting out the oil fire is a brilliant cinematic set piece…and the score is one of the great modern original soundtracks to be done.” —ZS

“Toy Story 3”

Topping Tarantino’s best movies list in 2010 was Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” which earned over $1 billion at the worldwide box office during the summer and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The film was also nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, among other categories. —ZS

“Unbreakable”

Speaking about M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable,” Tarantino says “it not only has Bruce Willis’ best performance on film that he’s ever given, but it also is a brilliant retelling of the superman mythology.” The movie was named one of Tarantino’s favorites since 1992. —ZS

“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”

Tarantino has a theory about people on planes. Speaking with Stephen Colbert in 2015, the filmmaker described romantic comedies as a guilty pleasure of his, “especially on airplanes.”

“There’s something about watching a rom-com on an airplane flight… I think there’s something to the fact that you become more emotional when you’re three miles in the air. I have found myself crying, literally weeping, at embarassing confession movies.” 

He went on to describe a scene from 2009’s (not especially well-liked) “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” in which Jennifer Garner’s character gives Matthew McConaughey’s character a camera for his birthday. The scene reminded Tarantino of a camera he was given as a child and he “started crying.” —AF

“You’ve Got Mail”

During the same conversation in which Tarantino revealed his “embarassing” reaction to “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” the director spoke about his sincere enjoyment of Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail.”

“I actually once had [a conversation] with these really serious film critics who were just poo-pooing ‘You’ve Got Mail,'” he said. “Because I really thought the film had some real verisimilitude. Even beyond the whole Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks thing. I thought that movie actually did a really great job of describing how big chain stores kill the little stores. And I thought it was one of the only Hollywood movies to deal with that subject in a serious way.” —AF

“The Blade”

Tarantino described this 1995 film directed by Tsui Hark as a “martial arts extravaganza” and once listed it among his favorite films of all time. The epic begins in a sword-making dynasty and soon sees its hero following an assassin who killed his father. —AF