Quentin Tarantino Slams Nearly Every Movie Released Since the Pandemic as 'Plain Stupid S---'
Quentin Tarantino Slams Nearly Every Movie Released Since the Pandemic as 'Plain Stupid S---'
Charlotte PhillippThu, June 4, 2026 at 5:13 PM UTC
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Quentin Tarantino on November 12, 2025.Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock -
Quentin Tarantino is sharing criticisms of most post-pandemic films as uninspired and full of flaws in a new essay
The Oscar-winner and Pulp Fiction director, 63, praised Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, Kevin Costner's Horizon films and the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck action flick The Rip, but said few recent movies have captivated him
Tarantino is working on a stage play, The Popinjay Cavalier, set to debut in London's West End in 2027
Quentin Tarantino isn't a fan of the majority of films released after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a new op-ed for the May 2026 issue of Sight and Sound magazine, the Pulp Fiction director, 63, said that he considers many of the films released since 2020 to be full of "just plain stupid s---."
"Since the pandemic, for me anyway, it seems almost impossible for a new movie to come out that I don't pick to death. 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, per The Hollywood Reporter.
"These days, the entire concept of what is a movie is more inclined to inspire contempt in me than generosity. Which is fair enough, because by comparison the movies of the last six years make the 80s seem like the 30s," Tarantino wrote.
Quentin Tarantino on September 28, 2025.Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty
The Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood filmmaker shared that there are still a few movies that he's "liked" in the past several years, including Steven Spielberg's West Side Story and both of Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga films — "but nothing that really held me in its grip and swept me away to the magical land of enjoyment that I used to visit and was the reason why I loved movies above all artforms."
"These days I'd rather read a book," Tarantino added, before singing the praises of one recent action flick: Joe Carnahan's The Rip, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
"The film is an exciting cop thriller with a novel premise that manages to deliver the goods in really clever ways," Tarantino wrote of the movie. "The whole package worked for me: Carnahan's direction, the splendid cast, the look of the film (courtesy of cinematographer Juan Miguel Azpiroz) — but the real powerhouse component of this splendid collection is the sensational screenplay by Carnahan and Michael McGrale."
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The Oscar-winner has never been one to hold back when it comes to film criticism, as he's made headlines over the past year for his comments about actors and recent films. However, Tarantino did take time late last year to share some of his favorite movies from the 21st century.
During a December 2025 appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino shared three films from this century that impacted him: director Ridley Scott's 2001 ensemble war drama Black Hawk Down, the third entry in Pixar's beloved Toy Story franchise Toy Story 3 and director Sofia Coppola's 2003 drama Lost in Translation.
Tarantino described Black Hawk Down as "the only movie that actually goes completely for an Apocalypse Now kind of sense of purpose and visual effect and feeling."
"I watched it again recently... my heart was going [pounding noises] through the entire running time of the movie. It had me and it never let me go," he added.
As for Toy Story 3, Tarantino said at the time that the "last five minutes ripped my f------ heart out, and if I even try to describe the end, I will start crying and get choked up."
American director Quentin Tarantino at Rome Film Fest 2021. Quentin Tarantino Red Carpet. Rome (Italy), October 19th, 2021Credit: Massimo Insabato/Archivio Massimo Insabato/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty
When it came to Coppola's Lost in Translation, the director said, "I hadn't really seen that girly a movie in a long time, and I hadn't seen that girly a movie be so well done."
According to THR, Tarantino is in the midst of working on his first stage play, titled The Popinjay Cavalier, which will open on London's West End in 2027. The show is described as "a rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise inspired by the grand swashbuckling epics of stage and screen."
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