Quentin Tarantino’s new movie is called The Movie Critic and will be set in 1970s Los Angeles, and nothing has ever sounded more like Tarantino.
Writer/director Quentin Tarantino's tenth and final movie is reportedly titled The Movie Critic, which hints at a perfect finale to the celebrated filmmaker's career. Tarantino's career began in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs, and has since released several films that have firmly cemented his status in pop culture, such as Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained. For years, Tarantino continuously stated that his tenth movie will be his last, and it never once seemed like he was ever joking or being hyperbolic. The director has already released 10 movies in total, but he counts Kill Bill volume 1 and Kill Bill volume 2 as one, making The Movie Critic his final potential release.
Now that Tarantino has written his final film, speculation is rife about what exactly The Movie Critic might involve. Along with the title, more details about Tarantino's final movie have been revealed including that it'll be set in Los Angeles with a 1970s setting. The movie will have a female protagonist, and it has been speculated that she's based on Pauline Kael, who was a popular movie critic, particularly in the 1970s. Though Tarantino is known for his obsession with ultraviolent action scenes, everything about The Movie Critic sounds like the perfect, reflective movie to end his lauded career.
Tarantino is something of a movie critic himself, often commenting on new movies he likes and doesn't like, and even infrequently publishing year-end lists of his favorite movies. And Tarantino's new non-fiction book, Cinema Speculation, which is semi-autobiographical, dissects the movie industry and many 1970s movies in great detail. Tarantino has spoken at length for decades about how much of an influence Kael's reviews are too, calling her his "film Keruac" (via HuffPost). One of Tarantino's strengths is writing powerful female characters, which makes The Movie Critic one of Tarantino's most exciting-sounding projects yet, despite the apparent lack of action and violence.
If it wasn't clear from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is set in 1969, Tarantino has an affinity for the era, especially when it comes to movie making (Bruce Lee controversy aside). And there's no denying how much money will go into the production to make the 1970s Los Angeles streets look as authentic as possible. For Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino convinced all the businesses on Hollywood Boulevard to have their storefronts dressed with 1960s facades. So it's likely that whatever studio bids the highest for the screenplay will go to similarly extreme lengths, creating a compelling environment for The Movie Critic's story. All this suggests the movie can deliver on everything audiences have come to love about Tarantino movies.
Tarantino has been talking about retiring after his tenth film for years, and he mentioned in an interview with Joe Rogan that he wants to retire before he's passed his prime (via THR), explaining, "I don’t want it to be like, ‘Forget about the sh*t he’s doing now, back in the day …'” So it's likely that he means it. However, countless filmmakers have come out of retirement for the perfect project before, and that could always happen with Tarantino. The filmmaker has so many unrealized projects that he has excitedly spoken about before, such as a Star Trek movie and even a Reservoir Dogs remake.
If Tarantino is given the keys to Star Trek, he'd undoubtedly return in a heartbeat, the same goes for if he's offered the $500 million he needs for Django/Zorro, even if it is extremely unlikely. However, Kill Bill volume 3 could be the most likely, as he might still consider it part of one movie. Either way, if the itch to direct never returns, The Movie Critic still may not be the final Tarantino project, as he has spoken about wanting to write more novels, and he has mentioned that he has completed writing a limited television series. At the very least, fans of the director will likely get more narratives from the storyteller, just in a different format.
Currently splitting his time between Madrid and Chicago, Stephen Barker has been a staff writer at Screen Rant since 2020. Since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University with a bachelor’s degree in Film, Television, and Cultural Studies in 2014, he has written for numerous movie and music websites. Visit Stephen’s personal blog, Quaranste, where he writes about guilty pleasure movies, his latest musical discoveries, and how he stays creative during global pandemics.
