Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood Movie Review

The following is a movie review “Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood” by Marc Primo.

Release date: July 26, 2019

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Language: English

Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, Bona Film Group, Heyday Films, Visiona Romantica

Producers: David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino returns to give action fans more of his compelling themes that ignite folk nostalgia in his new film Once Upon a Time In... Hollywood. With A-listers Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio giving life to the novelty of Hollywood’s heyday during the late sixties, audiences are invited to witness the conclusion of an era and into Tarantino’s most personal retrospective to date.

Set in 1969, the film’s protagonists are the washed-up actor Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), and his stunt double, boy-Friday Cliff Booth (Pitt). After starring in several film and television blockbusters, Dalton is relegated to starring as a villain in an action series which slowly diminishes his star (or at least how his agent Marvin Schwarzs (Al Pacino) sees it).

In classic Tarantino fashion, the audiences soon discover that Dalton is neighbor to real-life Hollywood elite couple Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and director Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), triggering Dalton’s desire to land a role in one of the famed director’s upcoming films. The somewhat mysterious Cliff, who usually hangs around Dalton’s place to watch television, (he really lives in a trailer concealed behind a drive-in theater), is haunted by rumors of how he killed his wife. His true past is never made clear in the film though, perhaps to avoid audiences from labeling him as an anti-hero. In a span of three days spliced with intermittent flashbacks, Once Upon a Time In... Hollywood gives us a weave of well-composed action sequences that goes back and forth to February 8 and 9, and six months after to the night of the Tate murders at the hands of Charles Manson’s cult.

Tarantino expertly delivers impressive scenes for both Dicaprio and Pitt, whether together onscreen or by themselves, that tend to be perfect pop culture references in the future. ‘Cool’ has always been a constant factor in Tarantino’s films, but Once Upon a Time In... Hollywood redefines the director’s vision in a way that audiences can cherish every minute as they follow the sequence of events.

On a more profound level, the film also presents how the director perceives the entire Hollywood system and how its actors, writers, directors, and the others that make up its community had truly interacted during that classic age of entertainment. The movie is somehow a tribute that helps modern audiences reminisce what it was like when the white male lead was celebrated onscreen.

Of course, there are ample amounts of Tarantino’s signature film slurs from his characters, particularly in a scene where Dalton talks to a child star and is still able to inject a slant against Mexicans or When Cliff advises a lamenting Dalton ‘don’t let the Mexicans see you’. It succeeds in projecting itself as an angry white movie that is somehow funnier than offensive.

Tarantino’s way of combining real-life events from Hollywood fantasy reflects his true genius, fueling imagination, desire, and angst, while effectively riling audiences as they watch. He expertly draws a line between fiction and history that leads to a fascinating ending that will make you wonder how close real-life Hollywood characters are to the ones we are watching onscreen.