Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio star in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (Warner Bros) — Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio star in *Once Upon A Time In Hollywood* (Warner Bros)

Quentin Tarantino is my favorite director of all time. His blending of different genres and the way he simultaneously pays homage to past films (from award-winning classics to obscure B-movies) while making something uniquely his own, is a talent few artists possess. Everything manages to be cool and fresh, while also feeling familiar and worn in.

He navigates that delicate balance, largely on the strength of his dialogue. There’s not a single writer that comes close to the natural, cool, effortless flow of his dialogue. His films have endless quotables, and while he does overindulge in violence with a comical, almost cartoonish level of gore - it’s his dialogue that keep his films interesting and entertaining. Pulp Fiction still airs on some channel, somewhere, every weekend, not because of the sporadic shootouts, but because the dialogue of the film is captivating, and it never gets stale.

A big reason for that is his knack for picking the right actors for his roles. The lines delivered by the likes of Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz only work because it’s coming from Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz. He writes with the actors already casted in his mind.

He’s said several times that he plans to only direct 10 films. Although he’s since (somewhat) walked that back.

Still though; in the event that this August’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is in fact his penultimate film, it’s a good time to go over his previous 8 films and see where they rank.

With that said, here’s my ranking of Quentin Tarantino’s 8 films.

8.) Death Proof (2007)

Tarantino is a film nerd at his core. He came up working in a video store, watching anything and everything he could get his hands on. He’s a virtual cinematic encyclopedia who sifts through the cabinets in his head, carefully picking and choosing what elements of past films he wants to sprinkle into his works.

Grind House was an ode to the days of 70s exploitation films. Him and his filmmaker friend/collaborator Robert Rodriguez teamed up to deliver a double feature, much like the days of those old grindhouse theaters. Rodriguez with Planet Terror, and Tarantino with Death Proof.

While I appreciate the effort, the homage to old Hollywood, and the element of female empowerment that dominated the film - I consider Death Proof to be Tarantino’s weakest effort by default. It’s not so much that it’s bad, as much as it is the fact that it’s tough to measure up to his other films. One of them had to be 8th.

7.) The Hateful Eight (2015)

Another film that was largely an homage to old Hollywood in the way it was rolled out. The Hateful Eight was initially released as a 70mm roadshow, with select theaters across the country playing the movie on actual film reel, complete with a keepsake program, and an intermission.

But once again, I felt the execution of the actual film lacked in some areas. The premise of the film is great, and had a claustrophobic, Reservoir Dogs-esque feel to it in that regard; but the dialogue just wasn’t as cutting as it is in some of his other films.

It’s still an enjoyable watch, thanks largely to some great performances all around; in particular by Samuel L. Jackson and Walton Goggins. Not to mention a hilarious scene in particular between Jackson and Bruce Dern that plays out right before the film truly takes off. It’s classic dirty Tarantino humor.

6.) Inglourious Basterds (2009)

I’m in the minority when it comes to this film. If you look at other Tarantino articles, you’ll find this film placed a little higher on a list of his filmography.

Once again, there is nothing “bad” about this film. It sports an 88% from Rotten Tomatoes. It’s plenty enjoyable. It’s surprisingly funny, given the dark nature of the story, and it features Christoph Waltz in the first of two Academy Award-winning performances he’d end up giving in a Tarantino film.

It’s Tarantino’s first of three historical, revisionist, revenge dramas, and as such, should be watched simply to see how different 2000s Tarantino is from 90s Tarantino. You would’ve never expected the same guy who made a film like Jackie Brown to make this one. But alas, here we are.

5.) Jackie Brown (1997)

A film with a Black female as the lead. In 1997. We don't even see that in today’s films. I know Tarantino has had a tricky history with diversity. Some people are put off by the fact he’s not shy about dropping the N-word in a few of the roles he’s casted himself in. Others say he tries too hard and joke that he “thinks he’s black.” He’s even been called out for lack of diversity with his newest film. But the fact remains, he has a pretty solid history of casting Black leads, female leads, and speaking out about racial injustices off-camera.

So, putting all that aside - Jackie Brown is a genuinely solid film. It gets overshadowed by the other two films he made in the 90s, simply because those other two films were cultural behemoths; but it shouldn’t take away from the fact that Jackie Brown is a cool, gritty, funny, and overall entertaining film.

4.) Kill Bill (2003-2004)

Kill Bill is without a doubt Tarantino’s most ambitious film. It’s a soup to nuts epic, plain and simple.

The movie had to be split into two parts, but it’s still considered one film, and its journey spans across a litany of genres. From spaghetti western, to crime drama, to samurai, to grindhouse, to kung fu, to revenge, to…anime. Yes, anime.

It’s a mishmash of all sorts of genres that get blended perfectly into a cohesive project that never feels ridiculous or awkward. It all weaves together masterfully. If for nothing else, you have to give him credit for embarking on a project that could’ve gone wrong at any number of turns.

A lot of that can be credited to Uma Thurman’s portrayal of “The Bride.” Uma kicks complete ass in it; both literally and figuratively; and it’s hard to imagine any other actress making the same impact and bringing Tarantino’s vision to life. This film doesn’t work without her.

3.) Django Unchained (2012)

Another ambitious project.

“Okay, we’re gonna make a spaghetti western, but set it in the south. It’s gonna be about the most heinous era in American history, but we’re gonna make it surprisingly funny. Oh, and Leonardo DiCaprio is gonna be a slave owner.”

Once again: On paper, it probably shouldn’t work. But that’s part of Tarantino’s genius. It just does. Nothing is too ridiculous in the worlds he creates. And in some weird way, he finds a way to ground them in reality to a certain extent.

The dialogue is some of the finest Tarantino has written in his career, it offers stellar performances from the entire cast (I know people really love Christoph Waltz’s character from Inglourious Basterds, but I vastly prefer his performance as Dr. Schultz in this one), and it has maybe the best soundtrack in any Tarantino film ever. A mashup of old western tunes with current hip hop. Again, not supposed to work. But it does. It seems to be a theme with him.

2.) Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Tarantino’s 1992 debut. A lean, mean, heist-without-showing-the-actual-heist, genre-defining machine. A low budget, barebones classic of a film.

As a young, unproven director - Tarantino wasn’t given much to work with financially. The total budget of the film was $1.2 million, and it was largely shot in one location.

It made no difference. The “colorful” characters, and equally entertaining dialogue carried the film, as per usual. The “reveal” comes about midway through the film, and it doesn’t even matter. The whole thing dripped with the swagger of a 70s exploitation film, with a fresh spin on the heist genre. A film that shows the before and after of a botched jewelry store robbery, but never shows what actually happened in said jewelry store.

Steve Buscemi’s Mr. Pink seems to be most fans’ favorite color-coded “professional,” though I myself am partial to Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel).

Regardless, the film set the stage for what would go onto be Tarantino’s biggest kahuna.

1.) Pulp Fiction (1994)

Check out the big brains on Quentin!

This is it. The masterpiece. The be all, end all. The magnum opus. There was no other way for this list to end.

For me, cinema begins and ends with this film. My apologies to Citizen Kane, The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption, and any other films routinely considered the greatest of all time. This is it. This is the one.

I don’t even know where to begin. There’s the overdose (a scene from which my next tattoo will pay homage to), the gimp, the subsequent sword, the suitcase, the royale with cheese, the foot massage story, the watch story, the car cleanup, the “Bad Motherfucker” wallet, and everything else in between. It’s a nonlinear crime drama of epic proportions. It’s an arthouse indie flick and a commercial blockbuster all at once.

It features my favorite character in the Tarantino universe, Jules Winnfield, played perfectly, and timelessly by Samuel L. Jackson.

The scenes are visceral, the music is memorable, the quotes are plentiful. It has it all. It captures everything that makes Tarantino who he is.

Homages to past films? Check. Surprising, elevated performances from actors deemed past their prime and/or not commercially viable? Check. Strong female lead? Check. Fitting musical choices? Check. Snappy, witty, classic dialogue? Triple check.

I’ll be sad to see Tarantino go, as he’s someone whose greatly influenced me artistically, and has scratched my moviegoing itch more often than not. But if he really is going to stop at 10 films, he’s strengthened the argument to retire. With Pulp Fiction being his second feature film, and one he wrote at 31 years old - maybe there is something to his belief that moviemaking is a young man’s game.

Ranking All 8 Quentin Tarantino Films