Skip to main content

Quentin Tarantino says the last great year for movies was 2019

The director was blunt about his feelings that movies are over.

Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.
Sony Pictures

There are few people who love movies more than Quentin Tarantino. The iconoclastic director has made a career out of his own love for a variety of off-kilter movies, but even he is not optimistic about the industry’s future.

“That’s a big f—ing deal, pulling [a play] off,” the director told radio host Elvis Mitchell in conversation at The Elvis Mitchell Suite presented by Darling&Co. at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.”But making movies? Well, what the f— is a movie now?”

Recommended Videos

Tarantino is currently working on a play, but still has plenty of time to sound off on the medium that made him the icon he is today.

“What? Something that plays in theaters for a token release for four f—ing weeks? All right, and by the second week you can watch it on television. I didn’t get into all this for diminishing returns,” he explained.

Tarantino went on to say that things had been rough in the movie world for some time.

“It was bad enough in ’97,” the director said, citing the year his third movie Jackie Brown was released. “It was bad enough in 2019, and that was the last f—ing year of movies. That was a s— deal, as far as I was concerned, the fact that it’s gotten drastically worse? It’s a show-pony exercise. Now the theatrical release, [and] in two weeks, you can watch it on this [streamer] and that one.”

It’s just a coincidence, perhaps, that movies ended the last time that Tarantino made one with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. This is far from the first time that the director has sounded off about the state of movies, and it seems fair to say he’s not optimistic.

Joe Allen
Contributor
Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…
Must-see films: The best movies on Peacock this February
Peacock is a TV service, but it also has a great catalog of movies to stream, too
Jack Black in Bernie.

A fun bit of historic TV trivia is that the original NBC peacock logo was first implemented in 1956 to highlight the network's new color programming. Even though the logo has gone through numerous iterations since then, the network has stuck with the colorful bird, in one form or another, for going on six decades now. It’s fitting, then, that Peacock is known most for its TV programming, highlighted by shows like The Office, Parks and Rec, and the self-mocking (and hilarious) 30 Rock. If you are on Peacock for the shows, however, don't overlook that the platform is also home to a number of great movies spanning cinema history, including everything from great comedy to excellent sports movies.

Below, I've picked out some of the best movies available on the service. I was surprised to see just how many greats there are to choose from, and I'm confident that whatever you like to watch, you'll find something good below.

Read more
Denis Villeneuve expects production on the next ‘Dune’ movie to start in 2026
The director was quick to clarify that he doesn't know for sure whether that start date will hold.
Rebecca Ferguson in Dune Part 2.

Dune: Part II didn't make quite the impact at the Oscars that the first installment did, but nonetheless, the movie earned five nominations on top of an impressive box office haul. While the last Dune movie is still less than a year old, director Denis Villeneuve is already hard at work on the next one, which will bring the series to a close.

"I’m in the writing zone right now," Villeneuve said in an interview with Deadline before adding that he'll "go back behind the camera faster than I think."

Read more
Here’s how to watch 2025’s Oscar nominated movies
Here's all the best movies of the year and how to watch them
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in the poster for 'Wicked.'

The 2025 Academy Award nominations were announced on the morning of January 23, after being delayed a couple of weeks due to the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires. Most of the contenders speculated to be in the running were prominently featured in the nominations, but now that we finally have a concrete list of films, it's time to debate who will win the Oscars.

We'll leave the hot takes for another time, though. We want you to be able to inform yourself and make your own judgments about this year's Best Picture nominees. You can't choose the best film if you haven't even watched them, right? Here's how to watch all of 2025's Oscar-nominated movies for Best Picture. And don't forget to watch the ceremony on March 2 at 7:00 PM ET on ABC and streaming on Hulu.

Read more