once upon a time in Hollywood was
written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad
Pitt and this tells a story of Rick Dalton an actor in the 60s most known for
television westerns and his stunt double cliff booth play by Pitt and their
various misadventures as they tried to remain relevant in the fading Hollywood
Golden Age of 1969 if you can tell that a filmmaker is in love with movies just
by watching their movies those are usually my favorite filmmakers it's one of
the reasons Tarantino has always been one of mine I love how he approaches
movies I love his thoughts on movies I've been inspired by him as a filmmaker
ever since I was young and I first saw Pulp Fiction on TV heavily edited but
still very effective I didn't really know what to expect from this film based
off the trailers because they seem like a collection of moments that seemed entertaining
but I wasn't exactly sure what the film was about and as most fans of his films
know sometimes his films don't really seem like they're about anyone thing
sometimes they are just a collection of moments extremely well written very
well-acted and a great time to watch which is exactly how I feel about this the movie it's in a way akin to The Big Lebowski hold your horses this is a brand the new movie it's not even out yet I can't say that it's something as you know
culturally important as The Big Lebowski is that film being probably my
favorite comedy but I will liken it to that film in the sense that this feels
very much like a laid-back chill movie where people kind of hang out and talk
Jackie Brown had a lot of scenes like that where people were just kind of sitting
around it wasn't necessarily about anything a friend of mine after the
screening tonight said that was kind of like Seinfeld and I can understand why
they thought that because in a way the film doesn't always feel like it has a
narrative and that's one of the things I love about Tarantino his movies don't follow
the rules they don't follow classic cinema structure you can look at his
screenplays and think how does he get away with this and that's what's beautiful
about what he does
this is different from everything out there today as is
every Tarantino film that was ever put into a theater at the time you can go to
this movie and even if it isn't Haight Tarantino which it's not this is not his
best film or anything but you can go to this movie and know that it's gonna be
better than just about everything else out right now because it is a friend of
mine after the movie said something interesting to me and I thought about it on
the way home and he's completely right a lot of people nowadays are sort of
arguing against the Hollywood star do we really need this super famous person
to sell a movie not so much anymore that's obviously a fading thing we're not seeing
as many of these gigantic Hollywood stars anymore and movies are based around
concepts or genre that everyone loves or how profitable it can be but in the
case of this movie, in particular, it is a fantastic argument for the Hollywood
star because Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt make this movie so elevated there
are scenes where these two characters just sit down and watch an episode of a TV
show that they worked on and the entire shot is just the TV and we're watching
the TV show that they're in and they're waiting to appear and you hear their
commentary in the background this would not work as well without those two
actors doing it and my friends and me who often do that when we watch movies
we're just very entertained by seeing these two megastars do the same thing
that we do when if we sit down and watch something that we're excited about the film is filled with scenes where characters are just kind of hanging out
talking if the lack of a constantly compelling narrative is an issue for you
you might find this film boring and there are aspects of the film that did sag
a bit the second act does have a lot going on that doesn't really feel like
it's of much interest there's a sequence in which time jumps and an absurd
amount of voice-over is required to explain where things are going now Tarantino
has done this many times before and sometimes we give him a pass on that
because we just say well that's just something
Tarantino does well yeah he does
but it's also kind of lazy and there are aspects of the second act that feel
like okay where's this going let's get back to where we were I love the first and third act they are phenomenal I love watching these characters I
loved just about every choice he made with placing them in weird scenes but throughout
the second act there's a severe lack of tension the film didn't have enough
build-up there was even a scene that felt like it was leading to something in
this old house in the middle of the desert but it just kind of went play that I
would say is my biggest flaw with this movie is that there is a lack of tension
you go to a Tarantino movie expecting some things there's the amazing opening and
inglorious basterds the milk scene one of the greatest scenes ever this movie
is not as interested in that as I've already said this is a very laidback film
especially for Tarantino out of all of his filmography, I would say this is the
most reliant on comedy it's a very very funny movie there are some extremely
weird and awkward scenes embarrassing stuff hilarious stuff there's an entire a five-minute sequence involving a fight scene that is almost entirely built
around one joke that happens afterward and without that five minutes scene the joke that happens afterward would have no weight to it but it does because he
is that committed to one joke and it's kind of amazing so if you go to this
movie expecting to be constantly riveted by a tense narrative you are not going
to like it because this is a comedy and it's a damn good one of the reasons
the comedy works so well is because Leonardo DiCaprio's character as this a fading star who was beginning to feel as if he's irrelevant he feels kind of
like a dying breed, he's this action guy who shows up on TV shoots a guy and
punches somebody and then walks away and he's starting to notice that film and
TV beginning to move past that he doesn't know where he is and because he plays
it so seriously the comedy works so well because you sort of want to laugh at
how endearing he is but he plays it so pitch-perfect that it makes it even
funnier if this character had been in on the joke
It would not have worked he
has to be completely level throughout the whole movie and he is which gives
Brad Pitt so many moments to just be so goddamn hilarious I loved him in this a movie he was my favorite part of the film by far he has so many incredible
scenes he gets most of the best lines and I loved his work in this movie one the disappointment I would also add to the movie is that Margot Robbie as Sharon
Tate had very little to do this could be because of a few things since this is
a real historical person who was horrific Lee murdered it's possible that
Tarantino didn't want to take this character and kind of manipulate that at the
same time she's in the movie a lot and she doesn't really bring that much to
the film beyond Oh Margot Robbie I like Margot Robbie and there she is on
screen and there's not that much to her characters he's not very integral to
the movie and you can sort of look at the movie and wonder if she really even
has to be in the film for the rest of the plot to work for the third act
obviously, he wanted to take what happened and do some things with it which of
course I won't get into because I love it I fucking loved it by the way I just
I roared there is an incredible scene that is one of Tarantino's best towards
the end if you roll with it and you like the direction it goes you're gonna
love it but there's not really a point to her character beyond getting to play
around with the Manson thing beyond that she doesn't have much of a place in
the movie as a character I feel like it's almost pointless to say but obviously
this movie is shot impeccably the production design the sets the streets of LA
that have been converted to look like the 1960s is absolutely stunning it seems
like it has the potential to be one of those midnight movies that fans start to
pick up and appreciate more over the years go along because I feel like a lot of
people will see this movie initially and think that was kind of boring actually
because it really is just a bit of a hangout movie which I welcomed again
I feel
like today we have become so accustomed to the way current movies play out
every scene got to mean something every scene has to happen right fucking now
something has always got to be going on we're really accustomed to that we are
being trained to expect that all movies are supposed to flow in a certain way
this movie is a 1960s film Tarantino is clearly as we've learned from all of
his other movies very inspired by that decade of cinema and this movie does not
feel like a product of today it doesn't feel like a movie that was made in 2019
it just it feels like a film that was made in the 60sjust with better
production values and that's what I love about it you don't get movies like
this anymore and I will always support that I'm gonna give Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood and a - if you love film you'll probably find something about this to
really enjoy thank you so much guys as always for look forward to more reviews
very soon and if you like this you can comments write here and get stuck mine
eyes
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