The Movie Critic

The Movie Critic will be Quentin Tarantino's 10th and final film. It was slated to enter production in September 2023 but due to the SAG-AFTRA strike it will likely begin filming later in 2023. Most likely will be released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

The film is set in Southern California in 1977 (the year one of QT's fave films, Rolling Thunder was released and which he presented as a special screening at Cannes 2023) and also the blockbuster hit Star Wars. The main character is based on a porno rag journalist Tarantino read growing up while he was working (his first job) as a vending machine restocker in his early teen years. Speaking about the critic Tarantino says: "His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern (rule breaking radio persona) and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic. Think about Travis’ diary entries". In the movie, the publication the critic writes for will be called "The Popstar Pages". There is a character arc similar to that of Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver.

The film critic character may be based on Jim Sheldon, a relatively unknown second string critic for L.A. porno rag The Hollywood Press. Sheldon saw many films at grindhouses like the Cameo in downtown L.A.

Pre-production: June 2023
Shooting: TBA 2023-24
Release date: tba

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