Tarantino's Top Picks: the 6 Movies He Thinks Are Perfect

He praised great many movies in his numerous interviews over the years, as well as in his recent Video Archives podcast and in his Cinema Speculation book, which was released on October 25, 2022.

However, what are his top picks, the movies which he believes to be the best of the best, the movies which in his opinion any true cinema fan should see?

In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in October 2022, while promoting the above-mentioned book, Tarantino provided his short list of perfect movies. But first he explained what he considered a perfect movie:

"Well, there's not many of them. That just bemoans the fact that the film art form is hard. Look, when you say perfect movies, you're talking about any individual person's aesthetic, but even trying to account for all aesthetics, the perfect movie kind of crosses all aesthetics to one degree or another.

Might not be your cup of tea, but there's nothing you can say to bring it down."

As for his actual list, it included The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Jaws (1975), The Exorcist (1973), Annie Hall (1977), Young Frankenstein ( 1974) and Back to the Future ( 1985).

So, while Tarantino speaks about "perfect movies" having to have an universal appeal, it is pretty obvious that his personal list is heavily slanted towards movies from his own youth, as well as towards his own peculiar tastes in cinema, with half of the list consisting of horror movies, and other half of different types of comedies (yes, Back to the Future is a comedy at the core, even if by standard of that time its humor was considered subdued and low-key).

That said, there is still no doubt that all six of his picks are iconic movies, which not infrequently appear on various "best movies ever made" lists.

So if you never saw one or more of those six, you certainly should rectify that, unless you absolutely cannot stand their genre.