Once Upon a Time in Hollywood takes place in the 1960’s and focuses on Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, an aging television Western star who’s trying to keep his fading career afloat now that the series he starred in has ended. He dreams of befriending director Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie, in the hopes of using their star power to restore his career. Trying to keep himself employed, Rick spends his time making guest appearances on several television series, with the aid of his best friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt. Together, the two try to find their place in a changing Hollywood.
This movie is a much different change of pace for director Quentin Tarantino. Known for his stylized crime thrillers and revenge tales, here he tells more of a “slice of life” story chronicling a day in the life of two Hollywood professionals. There’s a much more easy-going, laid-back feel to this film, with not that many scenes really being played up for suspense or thrills. That’s not to say there aren’t any thrilling scenes, as this does, after all, take place during the time when the Manson Family was prominent, as Tarantino himself has stated when this film was in production.
But for the most part, this is much more of a straightforward comedy. While nearly all of Tarantino’s movies contain elements of dark humor, this film is mostly light-hearted - and I use that term loosely - in comparison to his other films. Many of the scenes are specifically played up for laughs, each containing Tarantino’s famous use of banter in which characters debate and squabble over mundane topics. Rick debates the philosophy of acting with a young method actor, played by Julia Butters - who is by far one of the best parts of this film - while Cliff spends his time starting up trouble on set with Bruce Lee, here played by Mike Moh in what is one of the most purely entertaining moments.
Most of the jokes work, though every so often a few aren’t necessarily laugh-out-loud funny, which is in part due to the fact that the dialogue isn’t as consistently sharp here as it is in some of his other films. While the film is overall still unabashedly Tarantino, this isn’t necessarily the same man who burst onto the film scene with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. This is a much more mature filmmaker, and his conversations are less about foot massages like in Pulp Fiction or about the graphic details of “Like a Virgin” like in Reservoir Dogs, and more about finding one’s place in the world and trying to stay relevant.
As Rick and Cliff try figuring their lives out, they take the audience along for the ride. They don’t know where life is taking them, and because of that, there really isn’t that much of a concrete plot here. While there are some fairly major moments throughout the film, there’s not a constant driving conflict that moves the story forward. This plays out more like a series of moments, as the audience follows Rick’s time on set or Cliff aimlessly wandering around Los Angeles. Everyone has to just go with the flow the same way both Rick and Cliff do here.
There’s a lot of time devoted to just soaking in this world that Tarantino created, mostly based on real people and events. This has been described as Tarantino’s “love letter to 60’s LA” and it definitely feels it. The time he takes to recreate 1960’s Los Angeles is astounding, and the scenery perfectly captures the feel of those days long gone. Tarantino manages to have some fun setting the mood, with energetic rock and pop tunes blasting throughout certain scenes, and just letting them go on. Though the biggest treat is seeing scenes from Rick’s career being played out, recreating the style of old 1950’s and 60’s TV dramas.
Though the film isn’t all just one giant recreation of the 60’s and Tarantino manages to still make it feel very much like his movie through some great stylistic choices. There are a handful of scenes involving Rick filming a TV series and the scenes play out as if they were the real thing, with the camera crew seemingly disappearing. There’s also another sequence in which Rick and Cliff watch one of Rick’s starring roles on TV and as the camera stays on the television, the two characters’ commentary is repeatedly heard, with Tarantino doing his own take on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The only “Tarantino-ism” that doesn’t necessarily work is the sudden and jarring narration, here done by Kurt Russell, who also cameos on-screen. While Russell’s narration is energetic and fun like the narration in some of Tarantino’s other films, it comes and goes so sporadically and inconsistently that it tends to take the audience out of the moment most times it’s heard. While the random narration has worked in other films like Inglourious Basterds and The Hateful Eight, the way in which it’s used here could have been a little smoother, or there were times where the scenes could have easily been re-worked to not include it.
Because Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is more like a series of moments, combined with the fact that Tarantino takes his time just hanging around in this world he created, it does cause this movie to drag a few times. There are scenes devoted to characters just driving or walking that feel a bit too self-indulgent rather than necessary. There are a few plot points also brought up that never seem to truly go anywhere. While it’s not uncommon for Tarantino to include long scenes of characters sitting and talking or taking the time to enjoy their environment, some of these sequences are less engaging and could have been removed to make the pacing a bit tighter.
Though what’s at least comforting is that Tarantino does reward his audience for their patience. While there were some small pacing issues in the first half, it’s really the last hour where the film really escalates. While they still stay true to the film’s overall feel and suddenly don’t go to resolve some one particular conflict, most of the storylines and plot points do come full circle at this time. Tarantino has a knack for some truly wild endings, especially prevalent in his last three films, this trend continues with this film, making the payoff truly worth it.
Despite what the film builds towards, the film does give Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate a bit of the shaft. In terms of the main three leads, she doesn’t really feel as integral to the rest of the movie as the others do. While Robbie is very enjoyable here, and the scenes themselves are fun to watch - especially one sequence in which Tate attends a movie theater screening one of her films - they don’t really add much to the rest of the movie, which feels a bit overstuffed as it is. Tate is never really developed as a character, acting more as just a general presence, and the movie would have benefited from cutting a lot of the unnecessary long takes to devote just a bit more time to her.
DiCaprio and Pitt, on the other hand, have a lot to work with, and really do carry most of this movie on their shoulders, both having an absolute blast with the roles. DiCaprio plays Rick Dalton with the same ham-fisted, gleeful over-the-top joy that he had when he played Calvin Candy in Django Unchained, though this time channeling his energy towards more innocent-sounding dialogue in comparison with that film, allowing him to be both a fun and sympathetic character to follow.
One of the most interesting character choices when it comes to Rick Dalton is that he has a stutter, something which doesn’t get in the way of his acting career. Those who stutter are typically seen as someone who’s nervous or lacking in confidence. Ironically enough, the stutter is the one feature that DiCaprio doesn’t play up in such an over-the-top manner, and Dalton still exudes confidence in everything he does, with DiCaprio’s booming larger than life energy making this feature seem so inconsequential. Despite being a tribute to classic Hollywood, Tarantino still finds a way to be subversive, flipping the image of a typical Hollywood star into someone who has common, relatable flaws.
While DiCaprio is great, Pitt is the one who really steals the show. Cliff Booth seems like a 1960’s version of Aldo Raine, who Pitt portrayed in Inglourious Basterds. He’s cool, calm, and collected, yet knows how to command a room when he’s present. He gets in a lot of the film’s funniest moments, and best quips and the audience has just as much of a good time watching him as he has portraying the character. While there are aspects of his character that definitely could have been expanded upon for sure, each of his scenes are some of the film’s brightest spots, especially shining in the film’s third act.
Like with many of Tarantino’s other films, there’s a whole slew of well-known faces popping up in the supporting cast, all for a few scenes each. The aforementioned Julia Butters is by far the standout of them all, containing some fantastic chemistry with DiCaprio - even potentially outshining him at certain points in their time together - as a methodical, super-confident child actor. Also turning in a very impressive performance is Dakota Fanning as Squeaky Fromme, one of the members of the Manson Family, who squares off in a very funny, yet very tense exchange of words with Pitt, also one of there film’s biggest highlights.
Al Pacino appears in a couple of scenes as Dalton’s agent, in what is probably one of the most relaxing roles for the actor as he gets to ramble on about Hollywood and the film industry, while Bruce Dern lights up the room as George Spahn, the man who rented out his property to the Manson Family. Beyond them, many of the faces seen are welcome additions to the cast, though really don’t have a whole lot to do, with the likes of Luke Perry, Michael Madsen, Damian Lewis, Margaret Qualley, and many others being nothing more than mere cameos.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has some more noticeable flaws than the last few entries in Tarantino’s filmography. Though despite some pacing issues, the good vastly outweighs the bad and it’s still another worthwhile entry in Tarantino’s filmography. It’s filled with some visually stunning set pieces, some fantastic energy, and an all around great cast, led by DiCaprio and Pitt both bringing their A-game. It may not necessarily be Tarantino’s best, but even when Tarantino’s not necessarily at his best, it’s still way better than anything released that year.
Recommendation: Watch It
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