Although it is just plain fun to rank a director's movies, it may also help me think about the director's oeuvre of work as a whole. Comparisons can help me to discover elements of film that I am drawn to, what the director finds value in revealing through their movies and possibly how the director has grown artistically.
Tarantino's movies are so distinct, it is easy for me to pick out many aspects of filmmaking he gravitates to, but I'll just mention a few that really jump out at me or that I really appreciate about his films.
He is known for his style which I think really boils down to him wanting to make his movies really, purely entertaining…
Although it is just plain fun to rank a director's movies, it may also help me think about the director's oeuvre of work as a whole. Comparisons can help me to discover elements of film that I am drawn to, what the director finds value in revealing through their movies and possibly how the director has grown artistically.
Tarantino's movies are so distinct, it is easy for me to pick out many aspects of filmmaking he gravitates to, but I'll just mention a few that really jump out at me or that I really appreciate about his films.
He is known for his style which I think really boils down to him wanting to make his movies really, purely entertaining to watch. This could be why he uses so much violence in his movies since that lends an inherent sense of excitement. His movies also never seem messy. They are put together very well and you know why you are watching each scene at all times. This also provides visceral entertainment.
Perhaps his greatest strength is his ability to surprise. I never know where his movies are going, but I know it will always be interesting and often fun to find out. He is a master at building suspense through careful world building and character development. He often is able to give the audience a good sense of his characters even with limited screen time by drawing attention to their particular way of dressing, speaking and how they carry themselves.
My favorite Tarantino flair is his ability to write fantastic scenes of dialogue. He knows how to draw an audience in by making the way a character speaks interesting and often disarms us by having them talk about pop culture or something seemingly humdrum before twisting it into something exciting that drives action or reveals something about his characters. He often prolongs scenes of dialogue, allows characters to philosophize with one another and develops a lot of drama through the dialogue alone. Really, somehow he makes his characters seem simultaneously relatable (or at least understandable) and otherworldly or larger-than-life, which makes them so very compelling to watch.
Other directors I have ranked:
JJ Abrams | PT Anderson | Wes Anderson | Judd Apatow | Darren Aronofsky | Ari Aster | Sean Baker | Bong Joon-ho | Jane Campion | Charlie Chaplin | Damien Chazelle | Coen Brothers | Sofia Coppola | Cameron Crowe | Andrew Dominik | Robert Eggers | David Fincher | Alex Garland | Greta Gerwig | Todd Haynes | Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu | Jim Jarmusch | Rian Johnson | Spike Jonze | Satoshi Kon | Stanley Kubrick | Sergio Leone | Richard Linklater | George Lucas | David Lynch | Martin McDonagh | Steve McQueen | Sam Mendes | Nancy Meyers | Hayao Miyazaki | Jeff Nichols | Christopher Nolan | Alexander Payne | Sarah Polley | Lynn Ramsay | Céline Sciamma | Ben Stiller | Andrei Tarkovsky | Taika Waititi | Edgar Wright | Chloé Zhao
