Is modern Hollywood "a flavourless sausage factory"? The celebrated, if often polarising, movie maverick Quentin Tarantino seems to think so.

"Since the pandemic, for me anyway, it seems almost impossible for a new movie to come out that I don’t pick to death," he lamented in a feature for Sight and Sound magazine.

"Flaws, implausibilities, audience pandering, miscast performers or just plain stupid s**t usually torpedoes every new movie."

It may seem like a particularly prickly point of view, especially with recent Hollywood hits like Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (to name just two) challenging his opinion, but there’s no doubt that Tarantino isn’t a lone voice. Franchise fatigue paired with rising ticket prices and a general criticism of homogeneous visual dullness have resulted in many ditching the silver screen for their own humble televisions.

Tarantino doesn’t strictly have a vendetta against modern Hollywood either, caveating his criticism by admitting, "the 1980s were pretty bad too". However, it was in the ‘80s that the plucky young filmmaker was finding his voice and distinct style, previously citing such favourites as Michael Mann’s Manhunter and Jim McBride’s Breathless — "I did forgive them in the 80s, because I loved going to the movies".

"These days, however, the entire concept of what is a movie is more inclined to inspire contempt in me than generosity."

A bland sausage-making empire though it certainly can be, Tarantino concedes that some bangers have fallen through Hollywood’s cracks, naming a handful of films since 2020 that have satiated his appetite for mouth-watering movies.

1. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapters 1 & 2

Tarantino admits that there have been a few movies that he’s liked, with Kevin Costner’s Western double-header, Horizon: An American Saga, being one (or two).

Decades in the making, Costner released his Western passion project back in 2024 to a relatively mute reception. Co-writing and directing the movies while also placing himself in the lead role, Costner’s tale was set during the Civil War era and depicted the violence and hardship that were experienced during the expansion of the American West.

Though it featured a cast of celebrated stars, including Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Rooker and Danny Huston, the first film failed to make much noise, earning just $38.7 million throughout its entire run in cinemas. It was an underperformance that forced Warner Bros to pull the planned theatrical release of the sequel and threw Costner’s plans for a third film into uncertainty — though the two-time Oscar winner remains resolute.

Yet, Tarantino’s fondness for Horizon shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, with the director clearly having a soft spot for the actor, attempting to cast Costner in both 2003’s Kill Bill and 2012’s Django Unchained to no avail.

He has also previously proclaimed his love for Costner’s 1985 film Fandango, telling Vanity Fair: "Kevin Costner is so great in that movie. To me, the mark of a really cool actor is, after you see his performance, you want to act like him. All right, I wanted to dress like Kevin Costner. I started talking like Kevin Costner."

As well as a Costner fanboy, Tarantino has long been a lover of the Western genre, too, having repeatedly proclaimed that The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Rio Bravo are among some of his favourite movies of all time. So, Horizon: An American Saga was a fateful match made in Hollywood heaven for Tarantino.

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is currently available to stream on HBO Max in the US and Prime Video in the UK.

2. Top Gun: Maverick

Finally released after months of Covid-related delays, the world was shocked when Top Gun: Maverick was a sequel worth making. Infused with the same electrifying energy of the original film, Maverick proved that Tom Cruise still had an irrepressible magnetism, with the star and director Joseph Kosinski helping the movie earn over $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

Tarantino has never hidden his affection for the original 1986 classic, even appearing in the 1994 film Sleep With Me to exclaim his passion. "Do you know what one of the greatest fu**ing scripts ever written in the history of Hollywood is? Top Gun. Top Gun is fu**ing great."

Enamoured by director Tony Scott’s visual style, Tarantino later listed such films as Man on Fire and Unstoppable as particular favourites, declaring during a Q&A "I loved his s**t… He’s like Douglas Sirk, he never got respect, was too commercial, people put him down. Now they teach classes about him."

Tarantino, therefore, was likely predisposed to favour Top Gun: Maverick. Released a decade after Scott's death, the legacy sequel centred on Cruise’s title character as he trained a new generation of fighter pilots, including Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his late friend Goose (Anthony Edwards) from the original movie.

"I f**king love Top Gun: Maverick. I thought it was fantastic," Tarantino told Variety back in 2022, "There was just this lovely, lovely aspect because I love both Tony Scott’s cinema so much, and I love Tony so much that that’s as close as we’re ever going to get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie."

Concluding, he added: "The respect and the love of Tony was in every frame. It was almost in every decision. It was consciously right there, but in this really cool way that was really respectful. And I think it was in every decision Tom [Cruise] made on the film."

Top Gun: Maverick is currently available to stream on Paramount+ in the US and rent on Prime Video in the UK.

3. West Side Story

Whereas film stars like Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro are instantly recognisable, even the biggest directors could get away with strutting down the street unnoticed. But, one of the only names this wouldn’t apply to is Steven Spielberg, perhaps the most popular director of all time, known for an embarrassment of cinematic riches, from Jurassic Park to Schindler's List to ET.

As a student of cinema who learnt his trade not from film school but from consuming movies while working at a video store, Tarantino quickly took to Spielberg’s dazzling spectacles. While he’s previously called the 1975 classic Jaws a "perfect movie" and surprisingly picked out Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as the best of Spielberg’s globe-trotting franchise, more recently he singled out the musical remake West Side Story as a particular favourite.

Calling the film one of the best movies of the 21st century, Tarantino praised the 2021 Oscar winner for its unrivalled spectacle, reimagining the championed 1961 classic for modern audiences. Starring the likes of Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose and Mike Faist, Spielberg’s take on the Shakespearian feud between the Jets and Sharks was a grittier interpretation that appeased young and old alike.

Speaking on writer Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast in late 2025, Tarantino claimed that the film "revitalised" Spielberg’s career: "This is the one where Steven shows he still has it."

Charged with infectious vigour, it’s no surprise that Tarantino is such a West Side Story fan — after all, he may have never made a musical, but with musical accents throughout each and every one of his movies, and a snappy, rhythmic editing style, he certainly loves to boogie.

West Side Story is currently available to watch on Disney+ in the US and the UK.

4. Joker: Folie à Deux

As well as being one of the most celebrated filmmakers of all time, Tarantino is also a gleeful provocateur. Notorious for his depiction of violence and use of colourful language throughout his movies, the filmmaker is a cinematic jester who revels in giving the middle finger up to his cynics.

No script of his better demonstrates this than Natural Born Killers, an inflammatory jet-black comedy about two troubled lovers and serial killers who become exploited and glorified by mainstream media.

Headed up by Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis and a young-ish Robert Downey Jr, and directed by the great Oliver Stone, the film earned a sizeable sum at the box office, but Tarantino wasn’t impressed by the outcome, and he later disowned the film entirely.

So, when Joker: Folie à Deux came around, which shares several thematic elements with his Natural Born Killers script, namely its focus on the media’s sensationalism of violence and exploitation of criminals, Tarantino found his film that never was.

"This seems pretty fu**ing indebted to Natural Born Killers, which I wrote," he stated on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast in October 2024, "That’s the Natural Born Killers I would have dreamed of seeing."

While the original 2019 film earned over $1 billion at the box office and claimed two Academy Awards, 2024’s Folie à Deux was critically and commercially humiliated. The title character, who in the first film was elevated as an anti-establishment icon, was disempowered in the sequel, becoming a lost, lonely figure who eventually rejected the villainous persona that had made him a cult hero.

Some fans felt betrayed by the depiction, but Tarantino loved it.

"Todd Phillips is the Joker. The Joker directed the movie. The entire concept, even him spending the studio’s money – he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right?"

Continuing, he added: "He’s saying f**k you to all of them. He’s saying f**k you to the movie audience. He’s saying f**k you to Hollywood. He’s saying f**k you to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Brothers.

"I really, really liked it, really. A lot, like, tremendously."

As we’ve established, Tarantino already holds contempt for modern-day Hollywood, so it’s no surprise that he revels in seeing Folie à Deux laugh in the face of its overlords.

Joker: Folie à Deux is currently available to watch on HBO Max in the US and the UK.

5. The Rip

Tarantino was clearly incensed when he penned his Sight and Sound piece in the summer of 2026, spitting venom at modern Hollywood with his familiar rambling diatribe. But, his antidote to his recent hatred of the industry was The Rip, a lesser-known action flick that was lost in the noise of streaming service traffic when it was released on Netflix back in January.

From Joe Carnahan, the man behind 2006’s Smokin’ Aces and 2011’s The Grey, The Rip starred Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as Miami cops who stumble across $20 million during an illicit robbery (or a ‘rip’). The discovery sets in motion a "suspense clock" as Tarantino describes it, "that never stops ticking till events play out sometime near sunrise."

"The whole package worked for me," Tarantino continued, "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."

The film gained over 40 million viewers in its opening weekend, a record for Netflix, yet it still failed to make a splash in the cultural conversation — perhaps Tarantino is solely responsible for all 40 million views. Indeed, its middling critical reception, including a somewhat underwhelming 77 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score and three-star review from Radio Times, meant general audiences quickly forgot about it.

But clearly Tarantino didn’t, holding it as something of a holy grail of modern filmmaking — something to cling to in the endless storm of cinematic sausages.

"Being a cynical f**k about modern movies I kept expecting this one to drop the narrative ball and it never did," he exclaimed, before comparing it to a classic favourite that received belated flowers.

"I hope this movie experiences a legacy close to another underrated film of its day, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). When Clint Eastwood’s film came out it was savaged by the newspaper critics… Nowadays, most Eastwood fans and Western aficionados consider The Outlaw Josey Wales one of Eastwood’s best and one of the best Westerns of [the] ‘70s (I certainly do). I predict and hope that something similar will be The Rip’s destiny."

For your sake, Tarantino, we hope you're right.

The Rip is currently available to watch on Netflix in the US and the UK.

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