Review 518: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood may not be Quentin Tarantino's best film, but its charismatic leads and loving tribute to the 60s make it a joy to watch.
In 1969 Los Angeles, everything is changing and TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognise anymore.
The plot is
There really isn't much of a structure to this film which would normally be a problem with this film but the rich atmosphere and day-in-the-life style narrative help to compliment that and make it strangely work.
Watching this film, you get the sense that Tarantino is paying tribute to time long past that no longer exists.
It's clear, however, from the way Tarantino cuts back and forth between following the lives of Dalton and Booth and Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), that the former are the A story and the later is the B story.
First you don’t know where it’s going and then you don’t care where it's going because the characters have such an eccentric charm to them and Tarantino just lulls you into his vision of 1969 LA.
Watching this film, you strongly get the sense that Tarantino is tributing a time, an era and a place that no longer exists. As star Brad Pitt put it "It's his opus to Hollywood."
Thematically, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is about the end of an era. Tarantino portrays this through the trajectory of Rick Dalton's career and how he attempts to turn it around.
The title of this film can be interpreted as a homage to the Sergio Leone Western film, Once Upon a Time in West which Tarantino is a professed fan of. The title can also be interpreted as being on of a fairy tale - a darkly comic, violent, Tarantino-style fairy tale.
All culminating in gloriously classic Tarantino-esque finale that's best left unspoiled.
Tarantino's direction is simply masterful, the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beautifully lush look of late 60s L.A. The production design (recreating L.A. in 1969) is magnificent and laced with texture and detail; the costumes are lavish, the sound is excellent, the scenery is breathtaking, the make up is rich and beautifully detailed, the soundtrack is outstanding. The setting is also very much a character in its own right because 1969 really was a year of transition between the old Hollywood and the Birth of the New Hollywood. He's looking back on his influences, the movies he loved, the period he was growing up in and what helped shaped him His vision of 1969 L.A. comes from a very personal place: What was playing on the radio at the time, what westerns were on TV at the time
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are tremendous in this film playing Rick Dalton and Cliff Boothe. Their chemistry is sizzling and they work superbly off of each other. They seem to have had a long and illustrious career working together. They seem to trust and have a mutual and professional respect for one another.
If Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a stage production of Hamlet, they would be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Rick Dalton is a classic, atypical Hollywood movie star, he came to Hollywood to do Westerns because he knows that he looks good in a cowboy outfit and now that the culture is changing
Rich has gotten to a point in his career where he's now guest staring on other peoples TV shows and he's having a self-worth crisis.
Not lagging far behind them is Margot Robbie in the role of Sharon Tate, she optimises the era that Tarantino is paying homage to. We're constantly filled with this sense of dread watching this film unfold because we know what fate awaits her. The fact that she lives next door to Leo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton reinforces the notion that he is a has-been. They're just out of reach; They're all of these things that he wants but can't: The real inner circle of Hollywood and all the glamor that comes with it. It's so close and yet so far.
Robbie is able to convey a lot whilst say very little, using her body langue and facial gestures to convey what she's feeling and thinking - a challenge that she more than steps up to.
Julia Butters is a true find in this film playing child actress Trudi Fraser, particularly in a hugely entertaining scenes where they talk about acting and how Dalton relates to a character she's reading about in a book.
The Leftovers' alum Margaret Qualley proves to be one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars playing Manson Family member "Pussycat" (yes that's actually her name). Her sultry demeanour, seductive alluring presence and fiery personality are absolutely welcome in a film like this.
Along with simply hilarious cameo roles from Damian Lewis, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Dakota Fanning, Nicholas Hammond and Al Pacino.
4.5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
Watching this film, you get the sense that Tarantino is paying tribute to time long past that no longer exists.
It's clear, however, from the way Tarantino cuts back and forth between following the lives of Dalton and Booth and Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), that the former are the A story and the later is the B story.
First you don’t know where it’s going and then you don’t care where it's going because the characters have such an eccentric charm to them and Tarantino just lulls you into his vision of 1969 LA.
Watching this film, you strongly get the sense that Tarantino is tributing a time, an era and a place that no longer exists. As star Brad Pitt put it "It's his opus to Hollywood."
Thematically, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is about the end of an era. Tarantino portrays this through the trajectory of Rick Dalton's career and how he attempts to turn it around.
The title of this film can be interpreted as a homage to the Sergio Leone Western film, Once Upon a Time in West which Tarantino is a professed fan of. The title can also be interpreted as being on of a fairy tale - a darkly comic, violent, Tarantino-style fairy tale.
All culminating in gloriously classic Tarantino-esque finale that's best left unspoiled.
Tarantino's direction is simply masterful, the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beautifully lush look of late 60s L.A. The production design (recreating L.A. in 1969) is magnificent and laced with texture and detail; the costumes are lavish, the sound is excellent, the scenery is breathtaking, the make up is rich and beautifully detailed, the soundtrack is outstanding. The setting is also very much a character in its own right because 1969 really was a year of transition between the old Hollywood and the Birth of the New Hollywood. He's looking back on his influences, the movies he loved, the period he was growing up in and what helped shaped him His vision of 1969 L.A. comes from a very personal place: What was playing on the radio at the time, what westerns were on TV at the time
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are tremendous in this film playing Rick Dalton and Cliff Boothe. Their chemistry is sizzling and they work superbly off of each other. They seem to have had a long and illustrious career working together. They seem to trust and have a mutual and professional respect for one another.
If Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a stage production of Hamlet, they would be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Rick Dalton is a classic, atypical Hollywood movie star, he came to Hollywood to do Westerns because he knows that he looks good in a cowboy outfit and now that the culture is changing
Rich has gotten to a point in his career where he's now guest staring on other peoples TV shows and he's having a self-worth crisis.
Not lagging far behind them is Margot Robbie in the role of Sharon Tate, she optimises the era that Tarantino is paying homage to. We're constantly filled with this sense of dread watching this film unfold because we know what fate awaits her. The fact that she lives next door to Leo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton reinforces the notion that he is a has-been. They're just out of reach; They're all of these things that he wants but can't: The real inner circle of Hollywood and all the glamor that comes with it. It's so close and yet so far.
Robbie is able to convey a lot whilst say very little, using her body langue and facial gestures to convey what she's feeling and thinking - a challenge that she more than steps up to.
Julia Butters is a true find in this film playing child actress Trudi Fraser, particularly in a hugely entertaining scenes where they talk about acting and how Dalton relates to a character she's reading about in a book.
The Leftovers' alum Margaret Qualley proves to be one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars playing Manson Family member "Pussycat" (yes that's actually her name). Her sultry demeanour, seductive alluring presence and fiery personality are absolutely welcome in a film like this.
Along with simply hilarious cameo roles from Damian Lewis, Kurt Russell, Bruce Dern, Dakota Fanning, Nicholas Hammond and Al Pacino.
4.5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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