Tarantino rips Hollywood, praises Netflix’s “The Rip”

Tarantino praises – Quentin Tarantino used an essay for Sight & Sound to take aim at modern filmmaking, calling many new movies “flavorless” and “rip off” prone—before making a rare exception for Netflix’s 2026 thriller “The Rip,” which he praised for its direction, cast, cinemat

Quentin Tarantino’s patience with modern Hollywood didn’t just wear thin—it snapped, and he didn’t wait for a premiere to say so.

In an essay for Sight & Sound magazine. the 63-year-old Oscar-winning director said he has become rare to find a new movie he can genuinely love. He described the current era with harsh. blunt language: “Flaws. implausibilities. audience pandering. miscast performers or just plain stupid s— usually torpedoes every new movie coming out of the flavorless sausage factory that used to call itself Hollywood. ” he wrote. He added. “These days. the entire concept of what is a movie is more inclined to inspire contempt in me than generosity.”.

For Tarantino, the frustration isn’t only about taste—it’s about momentum and erosion. He argued that, compared with what he sees now, “the movies of the last six years make the ’80s seem like the ’30s.” He has previously called the 1980s one of the worst eras for cinema.

Even so, he made clear he wasn’t living in a vacuum of bitterness. He said he has seen movies he liked since then—listing “West Side Story” (2021) and “Horizon: An American Saga” Chapter 1 and 2 (both 2024). But he said nothing since those releases “really held me in its grip” or swept him into “the magical land of enjoyment” he associated with loving movies.

Instead, he wrote: “These days I’d rather read a book.”

That mood sharpened when he turned to franchises. He slammed “The Hunger Games” franchise, calling it “a rip off” of the Japanese film “Battle Royale.”

The sharpest contrast came when he named the one film he says grabbed him fully. Tarantino’s caveat arrived with a title: “The Rip,” a 2026 Netflix movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

“A suspenseful new movie has come out that did grab me and held me for its entire duration. ” Tarantino wrote—before praising what he called “an exciting cop thriller with a novel premise that manages to deliver the goods in really clever ways.” He said the “whole package” worked. praising the direction. cast. cinematography. and a “sensational” screenplay.

Tarantino’s critique of Hollywood isn’t new, and it’s tied to what he believes has changed about how and when audiences see films. He has not released a feature since 2019’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” He has announced plans to direct only one more film before retiring as a director.

But he has also said he is in no rush to make his last film. Part of that hesitance, he said, comes from disillusionment with the industry and from the way movies are made available to watch at home soon after playing in theaters.

At the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, he said: “What … is a movie now?” He continued, “What, something that plays in theaters for a token release for four … weeks, and by the second week you can watch it on television?. I didn’t get into all this for diminishing returns.” He also described 2019 as the “last … year of movies.”.

For readers trying to locate where Tarantino’s standards still land, his comments across platforms offer a map. In 2022. in an interview on the “ReelBlend” podcast. he said he “loved” “Top Gun: Maverick.” He called it “fantastic. ” and said seeing it in theaters—and Spielberg’s “West Side Story”—provided a “true cinematic spectacle. ” the kind he said he thought he might not see again.

On the “Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” last year, the director counted down his top 20 favorite films of the 21st century so far. He said that other than Spielberg’s “West Side Story” coming in at No. 20, no movies from the 2020s made the list.

In March, Tarantino revealed his next project would be a “swashbuckling comedy” play on the West End called “The Popinjay Cavalier.” He has not announced what his 10th and final movie will be after scrapping plans to make a film called “The Movie Critic.”

Even as he talks about stepping back from directing. he is still tied to film through writing: he penned the screenplay for a “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” follow-up set for release on Netflix later this year. directed by David Fincher. The sequel stars Brad Pitt, reprising his Oscar-winning role as Hollywood stuntman Cliff Booth.

The rhythm of Tarantino’s remarks is easy to feel: a director who says he’s been starved of movies worth loving, yet still knows exactly what he wants when one finally lands.

Quentin Tarantino The Rip Netflix Matt Damon Ben Affleck Sight & Sound The Hunger Games Battle Royale Hollywood Sundance Film Festival Top Gun: Maverick West Side Story David Fincher Brad Pitt Cliff Booth