The Movie Critic: Tarantino's next (last?) film about Pauline Kael?

Status is about vanity. If that's what one is in the movie game for, that's their business. But I think it's a fairly empty ambition.



Now some of those guys you mentioned simply ran out of passion for the game (John Carpenter), or lost the ability to finance their projects properly (Coppola). In those cases I get them packing it in out of total apathy towards the business, or abject frustration. I also get an artist figuring they've already said everything they need to, which very well may be the case with Tarantino. He certainly has been circling around the same themes for a long time now.



But stopping out of the presumed worry that they might damage their perfect reputation? Nah, who cares about that. I'll keep my respect more for the artists who go down swinging.

I also have respect for directors who aren't afraid to step outside their comfort zones. I just think that this particular instance says more about a lack of courage than a facepalm inducing instance of immaturity. And yes, I know that Tarantino regularly acts like a child and has for a while at this point, but I don't think this particular instance is a case of such.

I bet he takes 6-7 years off, gets bored with theater/novels, and then comes back to do three more.

Reports coming out that Brad Pitt's gonna be in this.

I don't really see the difference between that and singers/bands deciding to hang up the hat before they grow stale. Sure it's kinda strange he's had this plan for so long, but I don't think it's childish or unreasonable. Am I disappointed however? Absolutely, I would love to have at least 10 more years of Tarantino. But in the end it's his decision.

__________________

Re the topic: I'd much rather see a film or doc about Dorothy Kilgallen (evidently there's been one in "development hell").


But geez, Tarantino is only 60 years old. So unless he's wanting to retire to do something else that he's planned, he'll soon become bored. He certainly has the oomph and the brain and creative power to do several more films. I hope he does.

Retiring at 60 would be a dream come true for me.

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

I get stopping if you think things are getting stale.


It's dumb if you've preordained that things will be getting stale before they actually do. When you claim you believe you've never been more in command of your talents and that youre still enjoying the process of making films. To put all of these good things beneath this idea he concocted 20 years ago that he should stop at ten movies because...well just because. I guess he thought (thinks) that kind of thing sounds cool.


While I don't like artists to keep cranking the same old shit out forever into redundancy, I also don't like whatever mythmaking charade he's pulling here. But that isn't surprising, since outside of his movies, I don't particularly like anything about Tarantino. Something I think is true for a lot of his fans, and that he'll likely quickly realize once he's 'retired' from the game long enough.

I can sure understand that. In my own case I've kept working in semi-retirement because there is nothing I'd like to retire to. IOW there is nothing I yearn to do that retirement would allow me.

But a lot of guys like to fish, golf, whatever; so retirement allows them the time to do that.

According to Deadline, this film has been dropped as his next and final film and he is going to be looking for a new project. This is a pretty surprising turn of events.

https://deadline.com/2024/04/quentin...ed-1235888577/

*sad trombone*

Wonder what happened?

Whaaa?




He did do this with Hateful 8 as well at some point, so who knows.

Wow. That's wild.

I don't really have a positive or negative reaction, really. On one hand it was such a strange idea for a film, and it's hard for me to imagine him making it in a way that feels "of a kind" with his earlier work. More likely it would've had to be some kind of homage to cinema in general, or something. So in that sense it's sort of a relief, I guess. On the other hand, that's the kind of thing that, while hard to do tell, is exceptionally good if you can pull it off. The whole project just seems high variance.

I guess the big connotation here is that this makes it more likely that it really will be his last film, since that would perhaps explain his reticence, knowing this would be the one he'd go out on.

All very odd.

Maybe this is what happens when you fret too much about your legacy.

I just realized there is another thread about this.

The one I started was back in 2019.

Anyways.... I’m stunned that Quentin decided to move on from the project. I was looking forward to it.

Hopefully, whatever project he takes on next will be a more return to his roots: a gangster style film. That will bring things full circle.

__________________
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

Or maybe he'll finally get to make that Star Trek movie he always talked about.

Hm, strange.

He's always been cocksure but I don't think he's cocky enough to tackle a documentary. And he probably didn't feel comfortable messing with one his idols and turning her story into one of his Harry Turtledove type alternate histories. Maybe he ultimately realized you can't make an entertaining movie about a film critic.