Summary
- Canceling ‘The Movie Critic’ shows Tarantino’s 10-movie limit is hindering his creativity, rather than helping.
- The project’s abrupt stop reflects the immense pressure Tarantino puts on himself to deliver a perfect swansong.
- Tarantino’s decision to cram ideas into one final film proves that his storytelling instincts deserve more than one movie.
Quentin Tarantino‘s surprising decision to cancel his planned tenth and final film, The Movie Critic, proves that his self-imposed career limit is a hindrance, rather than a help to the director. While highly anticipated, little was known about The Movie Critic, beyond a brief sketch of a premise provided by Tarantino. However, while the 61-year-old’s various statements on the project have been intriguing, his decision to cancel the film highlights problems that extend beyond the issues that might normally affect a movie’s production.
The Movie Critic‘s cancelation comes, according to a report by Deadline, after Tarantino “simply had a change of heart” about the project. This follows previous reporting that indicated the project had been reworked to include Brad Pitt’s character, Cliff Booth, from Tarantino’s acclaimed Once Upon A Time In Hollywood feature. However, while The Movie Critic seems completely dead in the water, there’s no indication that it has affected Tarantino’s plans to retire after 10 movies. While this makes sense, given the director was clearly unhappy with how the film was developing, it also proves how flawed the plan is.
The Movie Critic’s Development Shows How Much Pressure Is On Quentin Tarantino’s “Final” Movie
Given the secrecy that often surrounds Tarantino projects (his Hateful Eight movie was infamously nearly canceled following a script leak), the lack of information around The Movie Critic is unsurprising. However, what has emerged about the project makes it clear that the uncertainty around the film’s development reflects the pressure Tarantino put himself under to execute his swansong. Early in the film’s development, for instance, there was no indication that Brad Pitt’s character would feature, and the decision to retroactively turn the project into a OUATIH sequel evidently didn’t work for Tarantino in hindsight.
The project’s changing story and direction, from a semi-true story “based on a guy who really lived but was never really famous, and…used to write movie reviews for a porno rag” (via Deadline 2023) to a OUATIH follow-up, shows that Tarantino’s self-imposed limit is hugely ratcheting up the pressure and expectation around what his final film will be. Were it not for the 10-movie rule, Tarantino could avoid conflating the two projects. The fact that, ahead of The Movie Critic‘s cancelation, Tarantino felt compelled to cram all his ideas into one film proves that one movie is insufficient to satisfy his storytelling instincts.
The Best Viewing Order For Quentin Tarantino’s Movies
Here’s the best viewing order for Quentin Tarantino’s ten feature-length films, from Reservoir Dogs all the way to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Quentin Tarantino’s 10-Movie Rule Is Limiting His Storytelling Ability
Originally, Tarantino came up with his 10-movie limit based on a flawed theory that directors’ powers often fade with age. While the rule has always been somewhat flexible, Tarantino has been relatively firm in his commitment to the concept after first raising it as a possibility. As he explained to Deadline back in 2014:
“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. … I like that I will leave a 10-film filmography, and so I’ve got two more to go after this.”
Not wishing to tarnish a legacy is an admirable objective. However, Tarantino’s experience with The Movie Critic suggests that this discipline might actually end up causing more damage than making movies 11, 12, and beyond ever could. The knowledge that this project should be his last is arbitrarily creating a creatively stifling environment for Tarantino, where the emphasis is on this project to be perfect. As evidenced by his multiple approaches to The Movie Critic‘s narrative, Tarantino clearly has more stories to tell. Giving himself one more movie to express his creativity is a pointless limitation on his storytelling potential.
Quentin Tarantino Breaking His 10-Movie Rule Is The Best Decision
The fact that trying to fit all his ideas into one final film has proved so unwieldy proves that, despite his previous commitment, Tarantino needs to abandon his 10-movie plan. In reality, there is no need to combine The Movie Critic‘s intriguing set-up with a potential OUATIH sequel. Without his rule (which has arguably already been broken, thanks to the Kill Bill movies), he could pursue both projects without the artificial pressure currently affecting his process.
Tarantino Movies In Order | |
|---|---|
Film Title | Release Date |
Reservoir Dogs | October 23, 1992 |
Pulp Fiction | October 14, 1994 |
Jackie Brown | December 25, 1997 |
Kill Bill: Volume 1 | October 10, 2003 |
Kill Bill: Volume 2 | April 16, 2004 |
Death Proof | April 6, 2007 |
Inglourious Basterds | August 21, 2009 |
Django Unchained | December 25, 2012 |
The Hateful Eight | December 25, 2015 |
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | July 26, 2019 |
Tarantino’s career is littered with examples of abandoned projects that many fans eventually hope will still see the light of day. Alongside more left-field potential releases like Tarantino’s James Bond movie or long-mooted Star Trek film, he has variously proposed making a Rambo movie, a Man From U.N.C.L.E reboot, and an Inglorious Basterds spin-off, as well as many other ideas. The extent of Quentin Tarantino‘s creative potential proves that his 10-movie rule is not just creating an oppressive environment for his next picture, but is definitively shutting the door on other great ideas for no good reason.
Source: Deadline
