From Jennifer Lawrence to 'Scream,' Quentin Tarantino's Pop-Culture Likes and Dislikes

Quentin Tarantino (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon, file)

Quentin Tarantino likes superhero movies, loves Jennifer Lawrence, hates True Detective, and refuses to watch streaming media. Those are just a few of the cultural touchstones that the director names in a revealing new interview with New York magazine’s Lane Brown. Of course, Tarantino himself has had a tremendous influence on pop culture, beginning with his hyper-violent 1992 feature debut Reservoir Dogs. And after more than 20 years in the business, the director of the upcoming Western The Hateful Eight has very strong opinions about film and TV. Here is an alphabetical list of all the movies, TV shows, actors, and media that Tarantino loves and hates (this week, anyway). For more, head over to Vulture.

LIKES:

American Hustle — Tarantino called David O. Russell “the best actor’s director, along with myself, working in movies today.”

Baghead — This 2008 horror comedy, written and directed by the Duplass brothers, got Tarantino interested in the “mumble core” indie film genre. “All that mumblecore stuff happened when I was in Germany doing Inglourious Basterds, so I didn’t even know about it,” he said.

CNBC — The cable news network that Tarantino watches “a lot.”

Cyrus — Another Duplass brothers movie that Tarantino liked.

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag — Poorly-reviewed 1997 black comedy directed by Tom Schulman (screenwriter of Dead Poets Society), which Tarantino named as one of his “favorite imitators.”

Escape From New York — Tarantino had war-hero-turned-criminal Snake Plissken in mind when he cast Kurt Russell in Hateful Eight.

The Fighter — Writer-director David O. Russell’s talent “really coalesced” in The Fighter, said Tarantino, who predicted that both it and American Hustle “will be watched in 30 years.”

It Follows — “It was the best premise I’ve seen in a horror film in a long, long, long time,” said Tarantino, though he also criticized writer-director David Robert Mitchell for not keeping “his mythology straight.”

How I Met Your Mother — One of the last TV shows Tarantino remembers watching all the way through. (No comment on the finale, though.)

James Bond — Longtime 007 fan Tarantino admitted that he tried to get the rights to Casino Royale after he made Pulp Fiction — though he didn’t want to play it straight. “That wouldn’t have been just throwing my hat in the franchise ring; that would have been subversion on a massive level, if I could have subverted Bond,” he said.

Jennifer Jason Leigh — “I’ve always really liked her,” Tarantino said of the actress, who gave a memorable reading for her Hateful Eight role. “She had to act like she got shot, and she just screamed bloody murder,” he recalled. “I kept remembering Jennifer’s bloodcurdling scream. If it had happened in a house, somebody would have called the cops.”

Jennifer Lawrence — Another actress Tarantino considered for the lead in Hateful Eight, though he decided he wanted someone older. “I think she could end up being another little Bette Davis if she keeps on going the way she’s going,” he told New York.

Jessica Lange on American Horror Story — Cited by Tarantino as the kind of role he’d be likely to write for an older movie actress.

Justified — Another show Tarantino recently watched all the way through.

Kingsman: The Secret Service - Along with It Follows, one of Tarantino’s favorite movies of this year.

Love and a .45 — Tarantino called it “the best” of all the films that have imitated his style. Starring Renée Zellweger, the tiny 1994 crime movie was made by first-and-last-time director C.M. Talkington.

The Newsroom — The director has nothing but enthusiasm for Aaron Sorkin’s much-maligned HBO drama, telling New York that he watched every episode three times.

Noah Baumbach — “There’s a Paul Mazursky quality to his films,” Tarantino said of the While We’re Young director.

Planet of the Apes movies — Tarantino grew up loving the original films, which premiered in theaters between 1968 and 1973. “My pessimism isn’t about franchise filmmaking. That’s been going on since I was born,” he said. “You can talk about Transformers now, but you could talk about the Planet of the Apes movies and James Bond when I was a little kid — and I couldn’t wait to see those.”

Print media — “I’m old school. I read the newspaper. I read magazines,” Tarantino declared.

The Shield — The TV show that drew Tarantino’s attention to Hateful Eight star Walton Goggins, although his praise did seem a little backhanded. “You know, literally watching him for six years do faux-Quentin dialogue let me know that he’s got the right kind of tongue,” he said.

Superhero movies — “I’ve had my own Marvel Universe obsessions for years,” said Tarantino. “So I don’t really have a problem with the whole superhero thing right now, except I wish I didn’t have to wait until my 50s for this to be the dominant genre.” Were he in his 20s, said Tarantino, he “would have been just like the guys at Comic-Con now who go and see every DC and Marvel movie.”

Too Many Ways to Be No. 1., Two Days in the Valley, The Usual Suspects — Three more mid-‘90s films that Tarantino named among his “favorite imitators.” The first is a Hong Kong movie Tarantino described as “really terrific.”

DISLIKES:

An Education, The Kids Are All Right, Notes on a Scandal, Philomena — “They’re all just like these arty things,” Tarantino told New York, rattling off a list of Oscar-nominated indie darlings. “They’re good, but I don’t know if they have the staying power that some of the movies of the ’90s and the ’70s did.”

The Matrix Reloaded — Tarantino considered this 2003 sequel his “competition” while he was working on Kill Bill. After actually watching the film, he said,” I walked out of the cinema singing that Jay Z song: ’S-dot-Carter / Y’all must try harder / Competition is nada.’ I was like, Bring it the f–k on. I was worried about that?”

Netflix — “My TV isn’t connected to my computer,” Tarantino explained. “It’s just a generational thing, but that doesn’t mean I’m not depressed by it. The idea that somebody’s watching my movie on a phone, that’s very depressing to me… I can’t even make myself watch a movie on a laptop.”

Scream — Tarantino thinks he could have done a better job with this satirical horror film, calling director Wes Craven “the iron chain attached to its ankle that kept it earthbound and stopped it from going to the moon.”

The Town — Though Tarantino “really liked” Ben Affleck’s crime drama, he criticized the “phony” Hollywood casting. “Next to The Fighter,it just couldn’t hold up, because everybody in The Town is beyond gorgeous,” said Tarantino.

True Detective — Said Tarantino, “I tried to watch the first episode of Season 1, and I didn’t get into it at all. I thought it was really boring.”