Tarantino's Top 10 Movies of the 21st Century

Revealed on a podcast yesterday.

10. Midnight in Paris

"I can’t stand Owen Wilson in Woody Allen movies. The first time I saw it, I loved the movie, but I hated that guy. The second time I saw it, I said, 'Okay, let's not be so judgmental, he’s not that bad.' The third time I saw it, I was just watching Owen Wilson without even realizing it."

9. Shaun of the Dead

"It’s my favorite director’s debut film. Although he has another low-budget debut he prefers not to mention. [...] I loved that you could feel how much he loved George Romero’s world that he recreated. The script is also really great, and it’s one of the movies with the most memorable lines on this list. I still go around quoting, 'The dogs can’t see up.' This isn’t a zombie movie parody. It’s a ‘real’ zombie movie. I appreciate that difference."

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8. Mad Max: Fury Road

"I actually didn’t want to see it. How can he not be Max when Mel Gibson is alive in this world? I want ‘Mad Mel’! Weeks passed, and people kept saying it was amazing, and my editor Fred said, ‘Seriously, you have to see it,’ so I finally saw it. The amazing scenes were truly amazing. It felt like witnessing a truly great filmmaker. He made exactly what he wanted with all the money and time in the world."

7. Unstoppable

"It’s one of my favorite Tony Scott films. I’ve seen it four times, and I love it more each time. A few years ago, I would have picked ‘Man on Fire,’ but ‘Unstoppable’ is the purest vision of Tony Scott’s action aesthetic. The chemistry between the two actors is great, and it gets more intense as it goes on. It’s one of the best monster movies of the 21st century. The train is the monster. The train becomes the monster. It’s one of the greatest monsters of our time. More powerful than Godzilla or King Kong movies."

6. Zodiac

"When I first saw Zodiac, I wasn't that into it. But then I was watching it on a movie channel, and after watching for 20 minutes, then 40 minutes, I realized it was way more compelling than I remembered. It kept drawing me in from various aspects, so I decided to watch this damn thing properly. From that point on, it was a completely different experience. I rewatch this movie every 6-7 years, and it's a luxurious experience I give myself. It’s a hypnotic masterpiece."

5. There Will Be Blood

"Daniel Day-Lewis. And the old-fashioned craftsmanship that permeates the film. It’s not imitation old Hollywood craftsmanship; it’s real. It’s the only movie he’s made without a set piece. The oil burning scene is the closest to a set piece. This was a movie about narrative and story, and he did it astonishingly. There Will Be Blood almost made my top 1 or 2. If only it didn't have a huge, major flaw... the flaw is Paul Dano. It’s so obvious that it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s not. His performance was terrible. Absolutely weak. Austin Butler would have been fantastic in that role. He’s just too weak, too boring. He’s the weakest actor in SAG."

He really talks like this.

4. Dunkirk

"I didn’t really like this movie at first either. The reason I love it now is that, as I watched it again and again, I felt the touch of a master. When I first saw it, it wasn’t that I wasn’t moved; I was just so overwhelmed that I didn’t know what I was watching. I was almost overloaded. It was only on the second watch that my brain started to process it, and after the third and fourth watches, wow, it just blew me away."

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3. Lost in Translation

"I fell in love with Lost in Translation, and I fell in love with Sofia Coppola and wanted her as my girlfriend. I publicly courted and wooed her. It was like a Jane Austen novel. I wasn’t personally close enough to meet her, but I kept showing up at events. I talked to Pedro Almodóvar about this, and we both agreed that this movie was truly a 'girly' movie. In the most delightful and delicious way. I hadn't seen a girly movie like that for so long, and it was the first time I'd seen such a well-made girly movie."

2. Toy Story 3

"The last 5 minutes just ripped my damn heart to shreds. Even trying to explain the ending makes me tear up and choke up. It’s just amazing. It’s an almost perfect movie. Not to mention the non-stop comedy. It’s usually hard for the third movie in a trilogy to succeed. For me, the other one is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and this movie is the animated version of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It’s the greatest conclusion to a trilogy."

1. Black Hawk Down

"I liked it when I first saw it, but it was so intense that it actually dulled my senses a bit. I couldn’t hold onto the emotions I should have felt. I’ve seen it a few more times since then, not too many, and it’s a masterpiece. One of the reasons I truly love this movie is... this movie is the only one that perfectly pursues the sense of purpose, visuals, and feeling that Apocalypse Now showed, and it actually achieved it. It maintains that intensity for its entire 2 hour and 45 minute runtime. I watched it again recently, and my heart was pounding the whole time. It had me completely gripped and wouldn’t let go. And that’s after not watching it for quite a while. The directing is beyond extraordinary."