Review of Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino

*Cinema Speculation* by Quentin Tarantino (2022). Published by HarperCollins.

There was a hot minute in my life where I was unable to escape this book when Quentin Tarantino dropped it. When I looked on Instagram, there it was. My local library? Front and center on the shelf. My usual blogs I go to when I want to learn some more about movies? Discussing this book.

A shocking confession from me, who has worked professionally as a critic for three years, is that I’ve never watched a Tarantino film. I haven’t needed to, as I specialize in international cinema, but then this book was everywhere.

The first time I tried to read it, I picked the book up at the library. I didn’t make it past the first chapter because I wasn’t in the mood for this kind of book—it’s a book where you A) have to be super passionate about movies and discussing them and B) willing to read it in chunks.

I was not prepared then, but when I was working on my master’s thesis I needed audiobooks to listen to while I worked. So I ended up spontaneously checking this book out one day, and I listened to it all the way through pretty quickly.

Here’s my review.

Quentin Tarantino discusses his life, movies, and what inspired him throughout the years.

Now, as someone who doesn’t consume any media about Tarantino at all, I had no idea what to expect from this book. I imagined he was a decent writer from his screenplays, and I wasn’t mad at the writing of this book at all.

It flows well, and definitely is much better than a handful of celebrity memoirs ghost written out there in the world. I enjoyed the actual writing of it quite a bit, it we’re going to be honest.

Each chapter of this book focuses on a different movie or director, and Tarantino breaks down the film and how it corresponds with his life. If you haven’t seen any of the movies he’s talking about, I think you’re going to be fine.

He kind of discusses each movie in a way that makes this text accessible, as I had only seen a handful of the movies myself. As this is a work of nonfiction, he blends together his love of movies to show how they charted throughout his life.

From going to movie theaters as an adolescent to talking about the inspirations he’s had throughout the years, I found this to be a pretty insightful book. I think as a fellow creative a good way to get into someone’s head is to look at the content they consume on a daily basis.

For example, if you want to understand a writer, you look at what they read and consume. If you want to understand a filmmaker, you look at the films they studied and influenced them throughout the years. Art is a community process a good chunk of the time—no one creates inside of a separate vacuum from the rest of the world.

At the same time, this fuses together film criticism and history in a way that works. He’s not just tying it to the personal throughout, but those personal elements add so much flair to what we’re reading on the page.

Overall Thoughts

Brilliant work from Tarantino. That’s honestly all I have to say—go read this one if you haven’t already. I think it’s worth picking up if you’re in the mood.

Otherwise, it might be a tad painful. It certainly took me several months before finally getting into the mood to read this.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.