Curveballs
Quentin Tarantino: Forgotten Jason Biggs Movie is One of the Best Films of All Time
For a director who’s obsessed with packing his movies full of subplots, tangents, and diversions, it seems appropriate that the side stories that have sprung up during Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds press tour are at least as entertaining as the movie itself. First, there was the Purple Dildo of Set-Napping Shame, and now Tarantino’s topped even that with a truly amazing list of his twenty favorite movies of the last seventeen years. The kids-killing-kids classic Battle Royale was number-one on the list, but it’s the number-two film Tarantino revealed that’s the real shocker.
That’d be the Woody Allen film Anything Else, or, as Tarantino helpfully puts it, “the Jason Biggs one.” Indeed! Others may know it as just one of the forgettable films Allen made at the beginning of this decade (including Hollywood Ending and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion) before the director began his creatively revitalizing European sojourn with Match Point. Sadly, Tarantino doesn’t elaborate on what he sees in the film or how it earned a place on his list, which is split evenly between Asian crime thrillers and fairly respected American films like Boogie Nights and Lost in Translation. Here’s the full list, followed by Tarantino’s video tour:
Battle Royale
Anything Else
Audition
The Blade
Boogie Nights
Dazed & Confused
Dogville
Fight Club
Friday
The Host
The Insider
Joint Security Area
Lost In Translation
The Matrix
Memories of Murder
Police Story 3
Shaun of the Dead
Speed
Team America: World Police
Unbreakable
· Talking My Language [Hollywood Elsewhere]
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Posted 17 Aug 2009, 9:29 AM
Anything Else, the second best movie since 1992?
No. Tarantino makes it quite clear that after BATTLE ROYALE, the remainder of the list is simply alphabetical. He said he could not differentiate between the other nineteen, only that BR is the best since he started making movies.
Which brings me to my main point.
All lists are hilarious in one way or another, but this one is especially so: "The Best Movies Since I Started Directing."
Which is just as well, because had the list really been "The Best Movies Since 1992", he just might have included a few of his own.
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 10:13 AM
Very cool. Would love to hear what other directors would list for top films too.
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 10:51 AM
For a guy as obsessed with Asian cinema as QT, it's kind of crazy that he includes the remake Lost In Translation instead of WKW's original (and immeasurably superior) In The Mood For Love.
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 12:12 PM
L.I.T. is not a remake.
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 12:40 PM
It is if you speak snark.
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 1:04 PM
Tarantino's honorable mentions list:
Bowfinger
Henry Fool
The Big Bounce
Last Chance Harvey
Eat Drink Man Woman
Space Cowboys
Saw III
Something's Gotta Give
Before Night Falls
Amores Perros
No Reservations
Monsoon Wedding
John Q
Bicentennial Man
Clockers
Boat Trip
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 1:27 PM
Is Keanu the only actor with multiple appearances on this list?
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 3:36 PM
Just when I want this blowhard to disappear forever, He tones down the manic persona and says something interesting and insightful. Total agreement about The Matrix.
Posted 17 Aug 2009, 3:45 PM
Aside from Anything Else, this is a pretty great list. The Host, Speed, The Insider, Battle Royale, all fantastic.
Posted 21 Aug 2009, 2:27 PM
The title of this article is the definition of hit-bait. This isn't his list of GREATEST films of ALL TIME, it's his list of his PERSONAL favorites from 1992 to the present. And apparently the fact that he listed Anything Else second doesn't mean it's his second favorite. You may as well have titled this article "Quentin Tarantino calls Keanu Reeves the Greatest Actor of All Time".
Posted 24 Aug 2009, 4:50 PM
What he said about the exhiliration of Speed in the theater, couldnt agree more