Quentin Tarantino Reveals His Favorite Movies of the 21st Century

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Quentin Tarantino, the famous director, is well-known for sharing his favorite movies each year. His lists often differ from typical awards season picks, proving his distinct and insightful taste in film. His recent selection of the best movies from the 21st century is a great illustration of this.

As a huge movie fan, I was really excited to hear Quentin Tarantino – the guy behind films like Pulp Fiction and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood – talk about his favorite movies of the 21st century on Bret Easton Ellis’ podcast. He shared his top 20, starting with numbers 10 through 1, and with the rule of only picking one film per director, it’s definitely not your typical best-of list! He included everything from what he thinks is Steven Spielberg’s most overlooked movie to a film from Jackass. Honestly, the whole selection is surprising, funny, and totally fascinating. You can find the full list and his reasons for choosing each film below.

11. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku)

12. Big Bad Wolves (Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado)

13. Jackass: The Movie (Jeff Tremaine)

14. The School of Rock (Richard Linklater)

15. The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson)

16. The Devil’s Rejects (Rob Zombie)

17. Chocolate (Prachya Pinkaew)

18. Moneyball (Bennett Miller)

19. Cabin Fever (Eli Roth)

20. West Side Story (Steven Spielberg)

Which 21st-Century Films Did Tarantino Choose as His Favorite?


Paramount Pictures/MTV Films

I’m really excited about Tarantino’s list! It’s clear he’s not just picking films everyone agrees are ‘great.’ He’s going with what he loves, and that’s awesome. Take Moneyball, for example. He clearly thinks it’s fantastic, and he especially raved about Brad Pitt’s performance – he said it reminded everyone why Pitt is such a huge star and that he basically carried the whole movie. It’s a really personal list, and I can’t wait to see the rest!

He also mentioned Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ, explaining that he found himself laughing throughout the film. He clarified this wasn’t due to any malicious intent or disrespect, but because he personally finds extreme violence humorous – the more extreme it becomes, the funnier he thinks it is.

The director also mentioned Battle Royale, though he criticized Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games, for borrowing from it. He also highlighted Big Bad Wolves, School of Rock, Chocolate, and West Side Story, calling the latter “the one where Steven shows he still has it,” and adding that he hasn’t seen Scorsese make anything this thrilling in years – it really breathed new life into his work. But the most surprising choices were definitely Jackass: The Movie, The Devil’s Rejects, and Cabin Fever. We’ll leave it to Tarantino to explain those picks himself.

Jackass: The Movie

Honestly, this movie is the funniest thing I’ve seen in twenty years. It reminded me of the classic Richard Pryor stand-up – I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time. It was so good, in fact, that while I was making Kill Bill, I had to share it with the crew. We tracked down a copy, watched it together, and we were all in stitches – seriously, we couldn’t breathe from laughing!

The Devil’s Rejects

Rob Zombie created a unique style in ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ – a blend of gritty Westerns, like those directed by Sam Peckinpah, and the unsettling atmosphere of films like those inspired by Charles Manson. This combination of influences hadn’t really been done before, and he developed it further in subsequent films. It’s a very distinct style – you can instantly recognize it – but it didn’t exist in horror movies prior to his work, where he combined those Western and backwoods elements.

Cabin Fever

There’s a really appealing quality to Eli’s work. His combination of humor and horror just clicks. The movie manages to be surprisingly funny towards the end, which often makes people forget how suspenseful it was earlier on. While Hostel is often considered his best film, this one is personally my favorite.

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2025-11-28 16:19