Quentin Tarantino

Food tutorial videos have become an art film in and of themselves, with websites like Tastemade and Buzzfeed Tasty churning out cute, quick, infinitely watchable short videos around a minute long that combine recipes with cooking tutorials — and they all look delicious. They’re such a popular thing that David Ma launched his own YouTube channel this week, where he posts food tutorial videos as if they were made by all of today’s most popular directors.

Just last night we learned that Quentin Tarantino’s next film is a “unique take on the Manson Family murders” — news that sent the internet running through the entire reactionary cycle at an unprecedented speed. Little is known about the project and what Tarantino’s “unique take” on the gruesome true-crime story might be, which only fueled speculation about the film (and inspired plenty of premature judgment calls). A new report offers a few more details about the untitled Manson Family project, most notably that Tarantino has met with Margot Robbie for the role of the late Sharon Tate.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod.

In 1992, Reservoir Dogs introduced Quentin Tarantino and his brand of cinematic violence to the world. Now, 25 years later, Big Star Games and Lionsgate are bringing a video game prequel to PC. Though video game tie-ins haven't exactly set the world on fire since... well, ever... Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days is hoping to be as memorable as Mr. Blonde, and not nearly as forgettable as Mr. Brown.

Of course, no individual could be fairly credited with having singlehandedly invented the modern understanding of what it means to be cool, but Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki is as good a place as any to start. With such films as Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter, he reimagined the gangster figure as an icon of bold sartorial style, unflappable stoicism, and casual Zenlike profundity. A few years later, these films would go on to inspire French New Wave classic Le Samouraï, which would later trickle down to the cinema of Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch. But to ascribe Suzuki’s importance to his influence on others would be an insult; his films map an entire engrossing world unto themselves.

Sundance isn’t always about the new stuff. Every year, the Sundance Institute picks a few films to screen as special events, and this year, among the choices are Amir Bar-Lev’s Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip and Quentin Tarantino’s classic Reservoir Dogs.

Given how much space physical media takes up, it’s hard for movie buffs to say no to the great promise of “cloud storage,” and the idea that we could summon anything we want to watch with just a couple of clicks. But so far, reality hasn’t matched the hype. Streaming services have been focused on exclusives and original programming, to the extent that the only way to have access to everything available is to spend hundreds of dollars a month on subscription fees. Meanwhile, older films keep disappearing from the digital archives; and even items that cinephiles “own” sometimes become inaccessible whenever software updates or a site shutters.

Might as well call it quits while you’re on top, right? That’s what Quentin Tarantino is thinking. The 53-year-old filmmaker has eight films under his belt and only plans to make two more. After that, he says he’s retiring.

When Tim Miller exited Deadpool 2 over creative differences (with Ryan Reynolds, of all people!) we were pretty shocked. The first Deadpool was great, an R-rated, funny, and blood-soaked respite from the formula we’ve come to expect from Marvel, and the prospect of a sequel was equally as exciting. But with Miller’s exit, Deadpool’s future has become a little more uncertain — so uncertain, that fans have set up their own petition to get Quentin Tarantino for the sequel instead.

In many ways, Quentin Tarantino is a film lover first, a filmmaker second. It’s his deep knowledge of cinema that’s made his films do distinct. Whether you’re a fan of Tarantino’s appropriation or not, you can’t deny how much his profound love of the medium defines his work. But instead of just plucking his favorite bits and pieces to make another genre film, Tarantino’s next project will literally be inspired by film history.