Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite filmmakers. He honestly might be my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, as a person, he’s far from perfect, but as a director and writer, he’s produced some of the finest films of the past 40 years. So when I saw that a handful of his movies were being added to two of the best streaming services, it felt apt to put together a guide on what to watch.
I’ve taken it a step further, though. This list isn’t in alphabetical or chronological order, and it isn’t random. Instead, I’ve curated this list in the order you should watch them to best appreciate Tarantino’s style, bookending his trio of modern Westerns with two movies that show off his writing skills in particular.
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Malcolm McMillan
Streaming Editor
Malcolm has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. Every week, he hunts down the top shows and movies to watch on Netflix, Paramount Plus and other top streaming services. He thinks “Reservoir Dogs” is better than “Pulp Fiction.”
5 Tarantino movies to stream right now
‘From Dusk Till Dawn’
From Dusk Till Dawn Official Trailer #1 – (1996) HD – YouTube
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Put your pitchforks away; I know this is really a Robert Rodriguez movie. But it’s written by Tarantino, stars Tarantino and is even constructed so Tarantino can live out a fantasy with Salma Hayek. If that’s not a Tarantino movie, I don’t know what is.
For those of you unfamiliar with this pulpy vampiric horror film, “From Dusk Till Dawn” stars George Clooney as bank robber Seth Gecko. He and his brother (Tarantino) have just knocked over a bank, leaving death in their wake. They spot Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his motor home, and, holding him and his family hostage, they head to Mexico to escape the law.
But while they escape the law, they get more than they bargain for when they go to blow off steam at an all-night strip club in the desert. What starts as a fun night turns into a standoff against a horde of vampires, and not everyone will make it till dawn.
Stream “From Dusk Till Dawn” on Paramount Plus now
‘The Hateful Eight’
The Hateful Eight Official Teaser Trailer #1 (2015) – Samuel L. Jackson Movie HD – YouTube
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OK, here’s our first real Tarantino movie on the list. I’m putting it here because of Tarantino’s three modern Westerns (I’m lumping “Inglorious Basterds” in that group), it’s objectively the worst. It’s still really good, and it looks gorgeous, but its acting performances are just not on the same level as “Django Unchained” and “Basterds.”
“The Hateful Eight” stars Samuel L. Jackson as bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren, and the film begins with him caught in a blizzard. He’s rescued by John Ruth, aka “The Hangman” (Kurt Russell), who takes him to Minnie’s Haberdashery to get out of the weather. There, they, Ruth’s prisoner Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and the town’s sheriff (Walton Goggins) meet the lodge’s manager, Señor Bob (Demián Bichir), as well as the town’s hangman Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), a cowboy (Michael Madsen), and former Confederate General Sanford “Sandy” Smithers (Bruce Dern). By the end of the movie, almost all of them will die.
Again, the writing of “The Hateful Eight” is a surprisingly weak point, given it’s a Tarantino movie. But the technical aspects of the movie still impress, including this movie’s incredible score. In fact, this movie won legendary composer Ennio Morricone his first Oscar.
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Stream “The Hateful Eight” on Paramount Plus now
‘Django Unchained’
“Django Unchained” stars Jamie Foxx as the titular Django. He’s an enslaved Black man in 1858 Texas, and finds himself unexpectedly freed by bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). King trains Django to hunt bounties himself and works with Django to find the freedman’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who is still enslaved.
They finally find her, but she’s owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), one of the most notorious slave owners in Mississippi. They devise a plan to buy her freedom, but Candie’s house slave, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), is already suspicious that they’re up to no good.
If you told me you thought “Django Unchained” was better than “Inglourious Basterds,” I’d disagree. But I’d get where you’re coming from. As much as I love Tarantino’s spaghetti western masquerading as a WWII movie, I’d argue that Foxx, DiCaprio, Jackson and Waltz put on performances in “Django Unchained” that top almost anything we see in “Basterds,” excepting Waltz’s award-winning performance as SS Colonel Hans Landa.
Stream “Django Unchained” on Paramount Plus now
‘Inglourious Basterds’
Inglourious Basterds Official Trailer #1 – Brad Pitt Movie (2009) HD – YouTube
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Set across five chapters and 153 minutes, “Inglorious Basterds” tells the story of Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), a French Jewish woman who escapes from the clutches of Nazi SS Standartenführer Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) to become a cinema owner in Nazi-occupied Paris. It also tells the story of “the Basterds,” a group of U.S. soldiers led by Aldo the Apache (Brad Pitt), a lieutenant hellbent on scalping every Nazi he comes across.
Eventually, these two stories cross paths, as does a third storyline centered around Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger working as spies planning an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler at a movie premiere. Incredibly, this war movie never shows a single battle, though it definitely doesn’t shy away from violence.
While “Inglourious Basterds” is the first of Tarantino’s modern Westerns, it’s still the best. The writing is superb, the characters are memorable; it’s a surprisingly quotable movie for a 153-minute war movie. It perfectly toes the line between black comedy and spaghetti Western, and it might arguably be Tarantino’s best movie. It’s his best movie this century, in my humble opinion.
Stream “Inglourious Basterds” on Paramount Plus now
‘Pulp Fiction’
Pulp Fiction | Official Trailer (HD) – John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson | MIRAMAX – YouTube
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When people think of Tarantino, they often think of “Pulp Fiction” first. It’s understandable. Tarantino’s writing brilliance is on full display; this movie even made non-linear storytelling cool. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for seven awards at the 67th Academy Awards, winning Best Original Screenplay. It’s considered perhaps the greatest indie movie of all time.
Set in Los Angeles, this crime film stars Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta as hitmen Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega. These two work for local gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), and are retrieving a briefcase for him. They eventually cross paths with prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), but not before an iconic scene where Vincent takes out Wallace’s wife, Mia (Uma Thurman).
This movie set the standard for Tarantino’s filmmaking style, even though it largely expands on the work he did in “Reservoir Dogs.” There’s sharp writing, an incredible cast of actors and plenty of violence. If you only had one movie to see what Tarantino is all about, it’s probably this.
Stream “Pulp Fiction” on Netflix or Paramount Plus now
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