The Movie Critic (Quentin Tarantino, 20never)

[Kracker]

He has cancelled the project. The slot for his 10th and final movie is now empty again.

Shame, i was looking forward to this one. At first i had misread the news as him changing his mind that it would be his last movie.

[therewillbeblus]

I just posted that

[domino harvey]

This sounded like a dud from the outset and the gimmick

SpoilerShow

Of recreating but changing well-known films is too similar to the 20% of his oeuvre devoted to rewriting famous historical events.

But Tarantino is so indecisive (how many projects has he announced he wanted to do that never panned out-- at least two dozen, right?) that the only shocking thing about this is how far along it went before being scrapped

[swo17]

He should just call My Best Friend's Birthday #1, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood #10, and be done already

[Finch]

I never understood his fixation with finishing after 10 films.

[aox]

I never understood his fixation with finishing after 10 films.

He's explained it a few times.

Two years later, during the aforementioned Hateful Eight event where he spoke of his “10-film filmography” plan, Tarantino said of his reasons for retiring: “I don’t believe you should stay onstage until people are begging you to get off. I like the idea of leaving them wanting a bit more. I do think directing is a young man’s game, and I like the idea of an umbilical cord connection from my first to my last movie. I’m not trying to ridicule anyone who thinks differently, but I want to go out while I’m still hard.”

It’s a stance he maintained in 2015, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “Well I’m probably only going to make 10 movies, so I’m already planning on what I’m going to do after that. That’s why I’m counting them. I have two more left. I want to stop at a certain point. What I want to do basically is I want to write novels, and I want to write theatre and I want to direct theatre. I actually want to do a theatrical adaptation of Hateful Eight because I actually like the idea of other actors having a chance to play my characters and see what happens from that.”

[therewillbeblus]

He has rigid-thinking, and that's his prerogative even if it deprives some of us of good art, but I just hope he doesn't keep psyching fans out on projects because it doesn't fit his criteria. My hope, and I think a pretty likely case, is that he realized that he could take The Movie Critic and make it different or better; that he was inspired by a superior idea during talks with Pitt, mulling over backstories, realizing what was 'missing' as he prepped filming, or who knows what. Could be we'll hear about a (either slightly or much) more interesting idea going into production soon enough

[Kracker]

I never understood his fixation with finishing after 10 films.

He's explained it a few times.

Two years later, during the aforementioned Hateful Eight event where he spoke of his “10-film filmography” plan, Tarantino said of his reasons for retiring: “I don’t believe you should stay onstage until people are begging you to get off. I like the idea of leaving them wanting a bit more. I do think directing is a young man’s game, and I like the idea of an umbilical cord connection from my first to my last movie. I’m not trying to ridicule anyone who thinks differently, but I want to go out while I’m still hard.”

It’s a stance he maintained in 2015, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “Well I’m probably only going to make 10 movies, so I’m already planning on what I’m going to do after that. That’s why I’m counting them. I have two more left. I want to stop at a certain point. What I want to do basically is I want to write novels, and I want to write theatre and I want to direct theatre. I actually want to do a theatrical adaptation of Hateful Eight because I actually like the idea of other actors having a chance to play my characters and see what happens from that.”

Since the article doesn't mention this, i remember a Stern interview way back when he mentioned his hero Billy Wilder, who ended his career with a couple of stinkers, and he said he didn't want to go out like that. And that was his reasoning behind the imposing a hard line of a 10-film limit.

[therewillbeblus]

He often points to Howard Hawks in interviews I've seen

[domino harvey]

I'm pretty sure he used the Liberation of LB Jones as an example as well, to which I'd say, who but the biggest Wylerphiles or Lee J Cobbheads even remember that was his last film?

[Kracker]

Hmmm Given that their names sound so similar, he might have been citing William Wyler in that interview actually.

[Randall Maysin Again]

He often points to Howard Hawks in interviews I've seen

Hmmm......I'm fairly certain I remember reading that QT loves Rio Lobo, or at the very least, El Dorado.

[PfR73]

He likes El Dorado, he does not like Rio Lobo. And in one interview, he references both Wyler (L.B. Jones) AND Wilder (Fedora & Buddy Buddy) as bad career-ends.

[knives]

(I think LB Jones is one of the all time great finales to a career)

[Professor Wagstaff]

Tarantino walked back some of his LB criticism on a Pure Cinema Podcast episode on final films.

[Maltic]

The '10 good movies' thing is weird: He proudly champions exploitation films, but sees himself as a Kubrick?

Regarding Rio Bravo, I believe he called it the ultimate hangout movie, the wrong label imo, since it seems to suggest a film of pure "badass" vibes, where "nothing happens".

[domino harvey]

Isn't Rio Bravo THE film people think about when they talk about "Hangout Films"? Seems like possibly the least contentious or questionable thing he's ever said!

[Monterey Jack]

Remember when Tarantino said he wouldn't be making The Hateful Eight due to the script getting leaked? And he ended up making it anyways?

I doubt that The Movie Critic is completely dead.

[Matt]

Regarding Rio Bravo, I believe he called it the ultimate hangout movie, the wrong label imo, since it seems to suggest a film of pure "badass" vibes, where "nothing happens".

I agree that it doesn’t have “badass” vibes, but also what would you say really “happens” in that movie? It’s 141 minutes and…John Wayne blows up a house in the last 5. A scene of four guys sitting around singing lasts longer than the climax.

[therewillbeblus]

Remember when Tarantino said he wouldn't be making The hateful Eight due to the script getting leaked? And he ended up making it anyways?

I doubt that The Movie Critic is completely dead.

This is what is fueling my theory that he's taking pieces from it, or morphing it into something a bit different

[Maltic]

Tarantino may even have come up with the term to describe Rio Bravo, but it doesn't capture what's essential about the film to me, like the redemption arcs (the My rifle, my pony and me scene is of course a celebration of Dude's recovery). Not the way he uses it, anyway, as in "people hanging out and saying cool lines." The Pauline Kael reading of the film (and any other Hawks film), if you will.

[swo17]

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: Taylor Swift's 11th album is not getting great reviews

[therewillbeblus]

It's not good, either.

I don't think Tarantino's position has been black-or-white around the quality of these directors' later works, in that he doesn't say his heroes made awful movies at the end and that's why he has his rigid rule. It's more about having a "perfect" career. He likes some of Hawks later stuff, but it's that they are not of the caliber of, say, Rio Bravo, to him that makes him want to be careful about continuing his career too long. He's a perfectionist who thankfully has enough of a hubris to unapologetically love his own work so the projects get to filming quickly. Otherwise we'd never see anything.

[hearthesilence]

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: Taylor Swift's 11th album is not getting great reviews

Hah! I'm kind of a Taylor Swift agnostic - I don't think she's bad at all, she makes fine pop music even if it hasn't left a huge impression on me - but I generally avoid what fans have to say about her work. It feels like a reflection of worthless reality TV culture where they just gossip over her personal life. Rob Sheffield's a superfan but a critic first and even if I don't hear what he's hearing, at least puts across why he thinks the music is substantial.

[therewillbeblus]

I either like or can see the value in a fair amount of her work, but this album felt like a rehash - except of all the weakest songs on each album. Perhaps that's what The Movie Critic would've been, Tarantino realized it, and moved on to reshape it like T-Swift shoulda