Quentin Tarantino reveals that his next film, The Movie Critic, will break a longstanding tradition for the director. The highly-esteemed auteur is returning for what is expected to be his tenth and final film as a director, which he is planning to shoot this fall. Other than its title and late 1970s Los Angeles setting, details about the film are scarce, though Tarantino debunked a theory about The Movie Critic being based on Pauline Kael, a legendary film critic who briefly worked in Hollywood.
Now, as the international leg of his Cinema Speculation book tour kicks off, Tarantino is continuing to tease details about The Movie Critic, per The Playlist. Other than it being based on a real, but unknown male critic, Tarantino confirmed that his tenth and supposed final film is not a revenge story, breaking a long-standing tradition for the director for the first time since 1997's Jackie Brown. Read what he shared below:
There is a lot of speculation as to who it is based on. And yes, he is a real critic, but he is not known… and I am not going to tell you more... It will also not be what you might call a revenge story.
Why The Movie Critic Isn't A Revenge Story
Since Jackie Brown, which was only his third film as a writer/director, every one of Tarantino's subsequent movies has been a revenge story in some way. His 1997 film was less of a revenge story and more of an homage to 1970s blaxploitation films and is Tarantino's only film adapted from another work (Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch). His follow-up film, Kill Bill, is a classic tale of revenge, while his lesser-known 2007 film Death Proof follows a motley crew of women seeking revenge against a stuntman (played by Kurt Russell) who murders young women.
Tarantino's next two films, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, were historical revenge stories centered on the Jews and the Nazis and a Black slave and his master, respectively. The Hateful Eight also contains elements of revenge and retribution. His most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, was an unconventional revenge story that rewrites history yet again as a fantasy where Tarantino essentially enacts revenge on the members of the Manson family who murdered Sharon Tate.
Since The Movie Critic will likely be his swan song as a director, it makes sense for Tarantino to divert from his recent filmography of revenge stories, which has become his bread and butter, in favor of a more sentimental story. The director has expressed interest in making his final film smaller-scale and more intimate, as opposed to the epic action-packed revenge tale. Whoever the real but unknown male critic The Movie Critic is based on, whether it be William Margold or someone else, remains to be seen.
Source: The Playlist