25 Best Directors In The World Right Now

5. Quentin Tarantino

Most Recent Film: Django Unchained (2012) Next Film: The Hateful Eight (2015) Best Film: Jackie Brown (1997) Quentin Tarantino is - and probably always will be - one of the most popular directors of all-time. This likely stems from the fact that his movies are "cool" - uncompromising works of violence, profanity and endless pop cultural references, which - of course - play into this modern era of apathy very nicely indeed. Above all, though, Tarantino movies are plainly fun. They're unashamedly entertaining, and that's what folk keep coming back for. So whilst most fans would cite Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction as the director's essential work, one could argue that Tarantino hit his peak with 1997's Jackie Brown, a blaxploitation movie homage starring Pam Grier that also happens to be his most mature film to date, and has since been regressing as a filmmaker with enjoyable but weightless genre pastiches. Still, the man remains a force of cinematic grandeur with no real equivalent; Kill Bill was a homage-clad blast, Death Proof a curious misfire, Inglourious Basterds demented and sophisticated both at once, and Django Unchained - controversial as it was - offered up one of the most relentlessly entertaining cinematic experiences of that year. And his next movie, The Hateful Eight, looks poised to deliver the same giddy thrills come this December.