7 Perfect Movies According To Quentin Tarantino
While any cinematic director is going to be something of a film obsessive, there are few in the industry who match the sheer excitement of Quentin Tarantino. Since his debut feature-length films, Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994), turned him into a superstar of the indie film scene, Tarantino has used his overwhelming love for cinema as a bedrock of his own works. Movies like Kill Bill (2003) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) are in deep communication with the art that Tarantino loves, and he’s never been shy about the movies that really strike a chord with him.
While the director has been up front about the movies he loves—and the ones he doesn’t like—there are a handful of films that Tarantino believes are pretty much perfect. The filmmaker broke down the seven films he believes are perfect in a 2022 interview on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, describing them as perfect fusions of style, craft, and storytelling. The fact that they represent a number of different genres highlights the filmmaker’s eclectic tastes—as well as what stands out about these films over the rest of their tonal peers. You can use JustWatch’s guide to find out where you can stream the movies this iconic director considers perfect!
Often credited alongside earlier classics like Psycho (1960) and later peers like Halloween (1978) with creating the modern horror movie genre as we know it, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is visceral, gruesome, and unforgettable. Following a van full of friends who break down at the worst possible part of rural Texas, the iconic killer Leatherface debuts in a film that’s still shocking in its brutality over fifty years since it debuted on the big screen.
There’s a level of gore in this film that still feels shocking, with an almost handheld approach at times that eschewed the typical sound stages in lieu of a more grounded, realistic setting—which in turn made the horror all the more unsettling. While later slashers like A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Scream (1996), and the X trilogy (2022) would push the horror genre into even more creative (and grisly) directions, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is as bloody and blunt as Leatherface—and all the more effective for it.
Often described as one of the fundamental blockbusters of the modern film industry, Jaws was the film that established Steven Spielberg as a cinematic legend. The film is one of those rare, perfectly calibrated films, with just the right mix of gory horror, tense action, unexpected levity, dramatic depth, and cinematic spectacle to be an all-encompassing film experience. The movie is fairly simple in terms of the plot, following the three men who set out to sea to bring down a shark terrorizing a New England beach town.
The level of craft, charm, and creativity in the film is stunning, pulling just as heavily from the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock as the monster B-movies of Spielberg’s youth. Jaws is still considered one of the best blockbusters decades later for a reason—alongside other films from Spielberg, like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Jurassic Park (1993)—and reinforces Tarantino's argument that a “perfect” film is one that brings all the different elements of filmmaking together to become far greater than the sum of its parts.
While The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may be the more openly grisly of the two, The Exorcist represents an equally effective approach to the horror genre. The unsettling possession movie follows an effort to free a young woman from the grip of a demonic force. Largely contained to a single building and ratcheting up the tension before delivering on a bittersweet but darkly fitting conclusion, The Exorcist is alternatively grim, disgusting, and enthralling.
The practical effects are some of the most memorable in horror history, drawing the audience into a riveting supernatural tale whose impact has been felt for generations of filmmakers. There’s a reason so many people attempt to remake this film, as the fusion of character drama and gross-out horror delivers on the haunting premise. While this period is a watershed moment for the genre, The Exorcist rises above the rest of the genre to be especially memorable.
A prime early example of what has become known as the rom-com is Annie Hall, a quirky modern love story for its era that set up many of the timeless tropes that have come to be identified with the genre. Woody Allen’s most famous film, Annie Hall, is set in New York and charts the romance of Alvy and Annie against the backdrop of Alvy reflecting on his life. The film is probably the best example on this list of Tarantino’s argument for preference.
If you don’t care for Woody Allen’s style of comedy or have trouble watching his films, given the accusations against him, this film won’t be for you. However, on a storytelling level, countless other films that followed in its wake, including fellow classics like When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Frances Ha (2012), have built on that foundation in their own creative ways. While your mileage may vary on how much Allen you can take, Annie Hall is a good example of a well-made movie that might not be for everyone.
Just as emotionally resonant as it is creative and funny, Back to the Future is one of the most feel-good films on this list. One of Tarantino’s examples of a “perfect movie,” Back to the Future’s story of a teenager flung back in time and forced to ensure his parents fall in love, plays with nostalgia in some fun ways, all while telling a timeless story of young love and discovering confidence.
Bolstered by some all-time great dialogue and performances that remain iconic decades later, Back to the Future plays with the sci-fi concept with more charm than any other movie Hollywood has ever released, delivering on a potentially unwieldy narrative with enough deft moves, goofy self-awareness, and real heart to deliver on a perfect coming-of-age adventure.
The movie that Tarantino has the hardest time defending on his personal list, The Wild Bunch is one of the prime examples of a purposefully harsh and perfectly gritty Western that has gone on to have a clear influence on Tarantino as a filmmaker. Grim and cynical in a way only the Western genre can be, The Wild Bunch follows a group of aging outlaws who find themselves adrift in a changing world.
A clear influence on Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015), there's an underlying somberness about the world that speaks to the way that genre can help audiences unpack the trickiest parts of life. While the imperfections of the film make it the one Tarantino feels the least confident calling a perfect movie, The Wild Bunch is one of the most impressive Westerns ever made and a good contender for that title.
