Quentin Tarantino Revisits “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

“Here’s the bad side of summer — it’s bringing Donald Trump out of the woodwork,” Bill Maher said. Specifically, next week brings some of the former president’s first public events since leaving office. Maher addressed this, as well as reports that Trump is working on a new book, on this week’s Real Time With Bill Maher. That his tone could be described as “skeptical” should surprise no one familiar with Maher’s earlier riffs on Trump. Real Time is taking the month of July off; given that Trump has been a reliable source of material for Maher, it’s far from serendipitous timing.

Maher also addressed the campaign against Britney Spears’s conservatorship. “We let someone completely unstable run the country for 4 years! I think she could get a credit card,” he said. His opening monologue also included nods to the recent Supreme Court ruling on student free speech and Connecticut legalizing marijuana.

Maher’s first guest was there to promote his debut novel, out later this month — which might read a little strangely, until you remember that the guest in question is Quentin Tarantino, and the novel in question is his prose take on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, complete with a gloriously retro cover.

Maher spoke of his fondness for Tarantino’s films — and how the knowingly retro design of the novel hearkened back to his younger days as a reader. And then Maher raised a question many fans of Tarantino’s work have shared: “What is this nonsense about how you’re only going to make one more movie? You’re too young to quit! You’re at the top of your game.”

“That’s why I want to quit!” Tarantino said. “I know film history, and from here on in, directors do not get better.”

Maher continued to press him, citing Clint Eastwood as a filmmaker who’s continued to do interesting work throughout his career. He also brought up Reservoir Dogs, and Tarantino noted that he’d considered remaking it for his tenth (and presumably final) film. “I won’t do it, internet,” he added. “But I considered it.”

Over the course of the interview, the duo covered a number of topics, ranging from Tarantino’s approach to taking criticism to 1970s cinema to whether or not Tarantino would ever make a film in Israel, where he now lives. “Are you bullish on the future of movies?” Maher asked near the end of the segment. Tarantino offered a rundown of film history, arguing that the industry moves in waves, and likening the current moment to a resurgence of the 1980s. All of which suggests that he sees artistic flourishing on the horizon.

This episode’s panel consisted of author and frequent Real Time guest Max Brooks along with author and podcast host Dan Carlin. Their discussion kicked off with all 3 men vocalizing their dislike of the “defund the police” movement before moving on to the subject of the pandemic, and how it compared with other plagues in human history. Brooks made an impassioned argument in favor of vaccines, and Carlin mused on the ways that the experience of the current pandemic might help us adapt more easily to the next one.

The rest of the conversation touched on themes Maher has covered frequently this year: the nation’s geopolitical rivalry with China, cyberwarfare and authoritarian states in general. Maher also sought his guests’ opinions on the lab leak theory; both Brooks and Carlin took a broader look, focusing on the history of different countries’ disease research and when it’s gone awry — including one incident that took place in the Soviet Union in 1971.

For this episode’s New Rules, Maher addressed the nation’s drinking habits — specifically, whether Americans are drinking to excess too frequently. He noted the reasons why some airlines are temporarily stopping the sales of alcohol as one of several indications that something is amiss. Maher also seemed concerned about the rise of places now serving alcohol, from supermarkets to zoos. Which isn’t to say that Maher was calling for a cessation of all drinking; instead, he spoke about it as a symptom of a larger social anxiety that was magnified by the pandemic. It’s one of his least controversial New Rules; it’s also one of his most resonant.