Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Review
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Quentin Tarantino's 9th and second last movie (or so he says). It's his most personal project set in 1969 Hollywood following Sharon Tate's fictional next door neighbour Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). It's slice-of-life buddy comedy with the Manson family looming in the background. And yes, you should do some research about the Manson Family and Sharon Tate before watching this movie or you'll be lost.
I wanted to put out there that Tarantino is one of my favourite screenwriters and directors out there and I'm always there to watch what he does. Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill, and Reservoir Dogs are among my favourite films of all time and I even love watching Death Proof and The Hateful Eight. I go to see Tarantino movies for the dialogue, gratuitous violence, retro soundtrack, and, although I don't have a foot fetish, there's a lot of that in his filmography and that's... Great? I got to experience all of these things but in a more meditative form. As of late, specifically after the passing of his longtime editor Sally Menke, his films have been very sloppy and paced very strangely. Not throwing shade at Fred Raskin but I think there needs to be someone who can really trim the excess. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is in a weird place. It's a film that anchors itself in the mundane. We watch Rick shooting scenes for a Western, Cliff driving around, Sharon Tate going to the movies. In the moment I found myself asking where it was all going and what the purpose was for these moments. But then I thought back to scenes in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs where he also did this. It's just that the dialogue is not as interesting or as punchy this time around. Some moments had a lot of emotional significance to me and other moments were very forgettable and boring. Boring is not an adjective I would ever think to associate with Tarantino movies but here we are. But then the final 40 minutes happen... And it's one of the greatest things Tarantino has ever done and it's definitely more powerful of a moment because of how slow and mundane the movie was up to that point.
Although Sharon Tate doesn't have much dialogue in the movie, Margot Robbie gives a very sweet and humanizing performance as the late actor. You can argue that Sharon Tate didn't need to be in the movie at all, but I think she's absolutely necessary at a meta level for everything to work. Although I didn't know much about her, I got so much joy just from observing her daily routine and those moments were made all the more powerful when the movie ends. Brad Pitt is a complete badass with a vaguely problematic backstory. There are a lot of moments of him with his dog that I really enjoyed and there's a scene of him just watching TV with Leo that I was really into. He's a very laid back and sometimes goofy character but I think he's going to be a very iconic movie character years from now. Cliff Booth is one of Brad Pitt's best performances and is up there with his work in Fight Club. There are a lot of other great performances sprinkled though out that I can't really get into specifically but there's a little girl that Leo interacts with in the middle of the movie portrayed by Julia Butters (American Housewives). She's incredible and her scenes become important moments to Rick Dalton's character growth later on and her scenes had a lot of lasting impact for me.
Overall, it's very unique and it's very good. It's also a very boring movie to watch for the first time and I still don't really care for 60% of it. But I feel more positive the more time I've had to sit with it. I wouldn't recommend the movie to anyone except for die hard Tarantino fans and fans of cinema. There are going to be a few walkouts and there are going to be conversations about it years from now about its significance. It's absolutely going to develop a cult following. If you're just looking for a by-the-numbers contemporary Hollywood movie, this is it. But if you're down to just hang out with a movie for its characters and escape to 1969 without expecting a plot, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood might be the fairy tale for you.