60 years old today, Quentin Tarantino very recently announced his tenth – and possibly last – major feature film. But can he really quit making movies? Or is our doubt merely a reflection of our deep appreciation for his art?

31 years ago, an up-and-coming young director rolled into the Sundance festival with one of the most unique films anyone had ever seen. Reservoir Dogs would catapult Tarantino into the stratosphere of not only the most successful indie filmmakers but also the most interesting ones. When he cemented his breakthrough with winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes two years later for Pulp Fiction, he was already being called an auteur.
All his next ones achieving equal cult status: Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood.
It’s easy to forget that Tarantino was actually born in Knoxville, Tennessee, because he embodies Hollywood in his art, with a mind that remembers in great detail all the films he ever saw, and the ability to reference this knowledge in his own projects. His mother moved him to Los Angeles, when he was only four years old. He worked at a video store for five years, using his access to watch everything they had. His first ‘industry job’ was at 16 as an usher at a porn cinema in Torrance, the Pussycat Theater. He always pays homage to the films that inspired him in his youth, especially those genres popular in the 1960s and 1970s, such as blaxploitation, heist, kung fu and spaghetti westerns.
He has given comeback roles to many actors: John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, Pam Grier in Jackie Brown, Keith Carradine in Kill Bill 2, Rod Taylor in Inglorious Basterds and Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Hateful Eight. And discovered others that became stars, most notably Christoph Waltz. He has called Uma Thurman his muse, casting her in three films. His visual style is inspired by French noir movies and especially by Jean-Luc Godard, and amongst his many influences in terms of topics and storylines figure Howard Hawks, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma and Sergio Leone.
Passionate about real film vs. digital and real theaters vs. streaming, he said: “The number one thing I miss the most was the fact that everybody shot on film and movies were always shown on film. But one of the things that is not there anymore that was there when I started out, is that I started out as an independent filmmaker. And in the 90s there was a legitimate place for independent cinema, in fact it was like a commercial market, and it was even beyond a niche. I could bitch and moan about this and that or the other but nevertheless, I am able to do what I am able to do on this gigantic canvas. So, I don’t really have any complaints.”
The triple Golden Globe winner told the HFPA in 2019, when his most recent film, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood came out that this, his ninth, would be his last and that he had not changed his mind about calling it quits: “Yeah, that’s still the case. Yeah, I feel like a very seasoned filmmaker and no, I feel like I have done what I meant to do and what I was supposed to do and now it’s time to call the horses into the corral.”

Maybe it was that five years ago he got married and subsequently had two children and just needed to take a break, but it seems the horses are coming back out to graze on the creative canvas that is film: titled The Movie Critic, the details are being kept under wraps, but sources describe the story as being set in late 1970s Los Angeles with a female lead at its center. It is possible that the story focuses on the legendary and influential film critic Pauline Kael. Tarantino is known to be a huge fan of Kael’s who died in 2001. She was famous for her strong opinions and her numerous fights with her editors as well as the filmmakers she wrote about not so flatteringly. In the 1970s Warren Beatty talked her into accepting a consulting job at Paramount. The subject matter as well as the protagonist make it very likely that the writer/director will focus on that part of her life. Tarantino has finished the script and plans to shoot this fall.
He is also in pre-production on a Western drama series called Bounty Law that he created and will direct. Lucky for us, Quentin Tarantino may just stay around as an active writer and director and not seek early retirement at 60.