Movie theaters across the country are currently shuttered due to social distancing measures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, but one very notable theater is using its website to post movie reviews from one of the biggest directors in the world.
Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema has quietly posted reviews of classic movies from the director. Happy Mag spotted the reviews on the cinema’s website, and apparently the director has quietly written about movies like Escape From Alcatraz and A Man Called Tiger for months.
Tarantino bought the New Beverly Cinema in 2007 and last year’s release of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood made it very popular over the summer. This part of his work with the theater is not a direct result of coronavirus boredom, as he started posting reviews on December 22 with six entries, including Escape and The Image of Bruce Lee. Still, things certainly have picked up in recent weeks: there were just two posted in February but March saw 10 reviews including Gunsmoke, Sometimes A Great Notion and Daisy Miller. And as to be expected, Tarantino is far from an easy critic.
The reviews are a treasure trove of insight into the famed director’s mind. One of them likens a film script to “one hot f*ckin’ potato”, whilst another calls Prophecy (1979) “pretty much a piece of sh*t from the word go.”
There are some very positive reviews, though, and many are less like a review and more a reflection on the time and place where Tarantino first saw the film.
“I’ve loved this movie since I was a child, and the older I’ve got, the more my affection grows. For the uninitiated it might seem like dumb crazy ass sh*t. But for a martial art film expert, and Wang Yu fan, it’s like a fine vintage wine only a connoisseur can appreciate.”
Tarantino has always had plenty to say about movies, and in the past he’s said he hopes to write books about cinema when he officially retires from filmmaking. So perhaps this is just a warmup to the role he hopes to play once his current career ends. In the mean time, we certainly can learn a lot from what he’s putting out online, and maybe pick up a few classics to watch along the way.