Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
- Tarantino’s love letter to LA and 60’s culture is his most understated and subtle film to date. In restraining himself, he once again proves why he is one of the greatest auteurs of all time.
Full Disclosure: My expectations couldn’t be much higher going into this one, which can be a very dangerous thing. When one of the greatest writer/directors of all time nabs the two last remaining true, classic “movie stars” as his leads, then bolsters the film with a top-to-bottom phenomenal cast in a story covering one of the most iconic years in American history, the bar is set sky high before the opening credits even start rolling.
Review
I’ve been anticipating the release of this movie since the initial details began to leak more than two years ago. Every step of the way, it sounded better and better. Quentin Tarantino’s writing a movie set in 1960’s Hollywood? I’m in. It’s going to have a storyline involving infamous psychopath and cult leader Charles Manson? Hell yeah! Margot Robbie, the only reason I didn’t stab my own eyes out during the agonizing turd sandwich that was Suicide Squad, is set to play the ill-fated actress Sharon Tate? Awesome! Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, the last two people on Earth that can truly be considered as Hollywood leading men, are signed on? I can’t wait! Then, lastly, there are rumors swirling that this may be QT’s last time in the director’s chair? Take my fucking money! Right now!
It’s hard to believe that Pitt and DiCaprio, two of, if not the two biggest actors over the last twenty years, took so long to star in a movie together. As it turns out, the wait was well worth it.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood features a pairing of star power that hasn’t been seen since the heyday of Newman and Redford. DiCaprio and Pitt might well be the last two actors who can sell a movie just by having their faces on the poster. They’ve both managed to avoid the easy routes of franchises, preexisting IP’s, and sequels in order to protect the reputations that they’ve worked so hard over the years to cultivate. Finally seeing these two on the big screen together is worth the price of admission alone. It’s just a huge bonus that they have terrific chemistry on the screen. These are two seasoned pros at the height of their game with no signs of either of them slowing down. It’s a real privilege that we get to watch them spout the beautifully crafted dialogue of the ultimate wordsmith that is Quentin Tarantino.
DiCaprio plays Rick Dalton, an aging TV actor with a crippling stutter who’s facing an existential crisis that every actor eventually faces: his descent into irrelevance. Pitt is his best friend and undyingly loyal stunt double, Cliff Booth. Joining them is the always amazing Margot Robbie as young up-and-coming actress Sharon Tate. Robbie as Tate is wonderfully effervescent in her wide-eyed optimism and naiveté.
Also featured is Al Pacino who, for the first time in maybe thirty years, never once yells or throws a cartoonish tantrum just to chew up the scenery. It’s refreshing to see that he hasn’t forgotten how to just act, without hamming it up to a ridiculous degree. Kurt Russell’s career resurgence continues as a henpecked stunt coordinator. I could list all of the cameos and bit parts played by the other phenomenal performers in the film, but that’s what IMDb and Wikipedia are for.
Margot Robbie truly shines and damn near steals the show as Sharon Tate. There could definitely be an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in her near future.
After nine films in the can, I find that the greatest thing about a QT feature is that you walk in thinking you’ll know what to expect, only to have the cinematic mastermind throw you for a loop time and time again. Yes, there will always be fabulous dialogue that we mere mortals only wish we could come up with in the moment, long scenes where people cleverly shoot the shit and don’t really drive the story forward, and a world that exists in a kind of parallel hyper-reality. Once Upon a time in Hollywood is Tarantino’s ultimate slow burn. It’s so seemingly loose, yet so tightly knit. It’s almost a meandering slice of life story… until it all comes together.
Like most of QT’s movies, I think it will be more appreciated after multiple viewings. I believe, as time passes, it will stand the test of time as one of his all-time classics; right up there with Pulp Fiction. While the runtime is a potentially daunting two hours and forty-five minutes, it still leaves you wanting more. He manages to, without the use of CGI, transport us into a bygone era of go-go boots, miniskirts, and shag carpets. Entire sections of Hollywood Boulevard were shut down and converted into what they looked like in the summer of ‘69, down to the smallest detail. I’ll get deeper into the actual story in the spoilers section, but this is a fantastic fucking movie and you should go see it as soon as time allows.
Spoilers Ahead
The fact that the Manson Family serves as a backdrop, rather than a main storyline throughout most of the movie was a stroke of genius by Tarantino.
Quentin… fucking… Tarantino! Wow! Just wow! We should all strive to live in the alternate universe Quentin Tarantino has created. He’s retroactively making the world a better place, one film at a time. The man who had the audacity to kill Hitler has now thwarted one of the most gruesome and infamous crimes of the 20th century; and he’s done it in the most hilariously satisfying way imaginable! While I knew QT was far too creative to simply create a stylized retelling of the Manson Family and their crimes, I never saw it all playing out the way it did in this film. Thank God for the heroes Cliff Booth, Rick Dalton, and Brandy the pit bull! What an unlikely crime fighting trio they made! The catharsis felt by the audience in the theater where I saw this was amazing. Laughs, roars, and applause all mixed together as the would-be murderers met the fate that they deserved.
There was a feeling of foreboding inevitability throughout the film, exacerbated by Sharon Tate’s contagious joie de vivre. The question throughout was, “How are our two main characters going to play into the Tate murders?” Other than the odd neighborly wave here and there, Dalton and Booth never interact with Tate and her crew. We all know how this story plays out… until we don’t. As it happens, in this world, there are no Tate murders! Tate was the ultimate red herring here. Every time this budding young actress with a lust for life was shown onscreen, it was hard not to cringe, as her fate is already irrevocably sealed in the morbid annals of history. Quentin Tarantino, true to form, throws two middle fingers up and gives an emphatic, “Fuck you!” to history. Anything is possible in movies, so what’s the point in doing the expected and ending the movie on a bummer note?
The heroes we never knew we needed. Here’s to Cliff Booth and Rick fuckin’ Dalton!
QT was shockingly reserved in his approach throughout the film, which makes the hyper-violent climax all the more satisfying. At the end of the day, this wasn’t a story about fanatic cultists, or a rising actress cut down in her prime, or the death of counterculture at the turn of the decade. It’s about friendship. It’s the simplest, most endearing of all of Tarantino’s films. The unshakable friendship between Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth was truly heartwarming, an adjective not usually associated with Tarantino films. It’s an extremely rare happy ending for all of the “good guys” in the film.
The blasé nature with which the sell-defense murders of the Manson Family are treated by the main characters is thoroughly entertaining, especially given what we know would’ve happened, had Rick Dalton (pitcher of frozen margaritas in hand) not cursed out the “fuckin’ hippies” in the cul-de-sac his house shares with Sharon Tate’s. Word on the street is that this may be Quentin Tarantino’s last hurrah as far as filmmaking goes. While that saddens me deeply, if this really is the final outing for one of the greatest storytellers to ever live, One Upon a Time… in Hollywood is one hell of a swan song!
Brandy: the unsung hero of Hollywood.
5 Quick Hits
Foot fetishists, rejoice! While some of Tarantino’s trademarks (constant ultra-violence, overuse of racial epithets, a role for Samuel L. Jackson) are absent here, QT more than compensates with the highest volume of gratuitous closeups of women’s feet in any of his films to date, and that’s saying something. I think he’s playing into it at this point, as his love for feet has become the stuff of Hollywood legend over the years. Hey, it’s not as weird as most of the stuff on the internet these days that’s just a click or two away, so, more power to him!
Red Apple brand cigarettes make their return to the Tarantinoverse in a hilarious mid-credits scene. Rick Dalton is the reluctant spokesman for the brand, and is clearly there just to pick up a much-needed paycheck. Hope you didn’t leave the theater when the credits started rolling.
July 2019 has been a great month for dogs in film. Stuber, Crawl, The Art of Self-Defense, and now Once Upon a Time in Hollywood all have major roles for canines in them; and I’m all for it! Nothing humanizes a character more than a love for their fur babies. Brandy the pit bull almost single-pawedly thwarted the Manson cultists and saved a houseful of people from being savagely murdered. Bravo!
Debra Tate, Sharon’s sister, worked closely with Margot Robbie to get her characterization as close as possible to the real thing. Not only did that collaboration yield a fantastic performance, but I can only imagine how cathartic it was for Debra to see a happy ending for Sharon and her unborn baby, half a century after their lives were tragically and pointlessly cut short.
It’s no secret that QT has a profound, deep-seated love for the 60’s and 70’s that nearly parallels his love for feet. It was great to see him finally go full bore into that era. Most of his films are dripping with motifs from the time. The joy he must have had rolling around in that sandbox came through on the screen. He wasn’t restricted to references, tributes, and an outdated soundtrack. Everything fits in the time and space of this film.
