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If you’ve spent any time tracking cinema discourse online lately, you know how rare it is to get pure, unfiltered passion for the art form that isn’t tainted by cynical bad-faith takes or algorithmic noise. Enter Quentin Tarantino at the recent AFI Fest. When the maestro of 35mm cinephilia takes the stage, you don’t get safe, PR-sanctioned victory laps; you get an unhinged masterclass from a guy who lives, breathes, and bleeds celluloid. Instead of playing diplomatic when pressed to single out his personal favorites from a legendary, blood-soaked filmography, Tarantino cut straight through the bullshit. He did what he does best: championing peak craftsmanship, dissecting his own legacy with ferocious authority, and reminding us why we fell in love with taking big, unapologetic swings at the movies in the first place.
Tarantino’s Personal Top Tier: Masterpieces, Favorites, and Singular Visions
As part of the event’s lengthy, in-depth Q&A, Tarantino surveyed his entire filmography and surprised the audience with a handful of picks that might throw casual fans for a loop.
According to Tarantino, his 2019 love letter to a bygone era, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, stands as his personal favorite. Meanwhile, he crowned 2009’s Inglourious Basterds as his absolute best work, outright labeling the revisionist war epic a true “masterpiece.” When it came to the one film he feels uniquely put on this Earth to create, he singled out Kill Bill, a hyper-stylized, revenge-fueled opus that he insists no other human being could have ever pulled off.
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The Snubs: Where Are Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown?
Curiously missing from his top tier were Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, the very films that altered the cultural landscape of the ’90s and established him as a household name. And look, I get it, it’s his body of work. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bummed to see Jackie Brown get left out in the cold. Pam Grier’s career-defining turn, Elmore Leonard’s grounded rhythm, and that bittersweet, soulful climax make it easily one of the finest, most nuanced pictures of his entire career.
The Internet Reacts (and Why Tarantino Views His Art Differently)
Predictably, the moment clips from the panel hit X, the echo chamber erupted. Fans rushed to the comments to preach the gospel of Pulp Fiction, arguing that bypassing his 1994 Palme d’Or winner is borderline blasphemous. But everyone’s entitled to their hot takes, even the director himself. Naturally, Tarantino views his filmography through a completely different lens than the rest of us. Where we see iconic monologues and needle drops, he remembers the sweat, the chaos, and the personal breakthroughs behind every frame.
At the end of the day, whether you agree with his personal rankings or not, listening to a master dissect his own art is a breath of fresh air. In a landscape dominated by safe corporate bets and rage-bait algorithms, Tarantino’s unwavering confidence in his own craft is the exact kind of passionate energy cinema needs right now.
