Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (MA15+)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie
Duration: 161 minutes
Quentin Tarantino's ninth (supposedly) film is maybe the least Tarantino-y film he has made in years, and carries a surprising amount of heart. I'm potentially in the minority when I say that a lot of what makes Tarantino's films unique I find sometimes annoying and, more rarely, insufferable. This reaction is to different degrees across his films - I think Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown are excellent, as is Pulp Fiction, but I find long passages of Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, and the entirety of Death Proof to be really irritating. The best way I can describe it is as the film equivalent of the annoying classmate at uni that needs to prove to you that they know more about movies than you do. It's incessant and, to be honest, annoying. Because instead of coming across as clever or creative, it gets to a point where it is just a director without any sense of restraint throwing as many influences and references as possible into a mixing pot and slapping their name on the end result.
So, my overly cynical opinion of Quentin Tarantino out of the way, is Once Upon A Time... any good? Yes. Is it excellent? In parts, yes. Is it Tarantino's best film? No. Is it, however, a relative return to form? (I actually quite liked The Hateful Eight) Yes. Notably, Tarantino's love of paying tribute to other filmmakers plays perfectly into this movie, it being an ode to what he perceives as the golden era of Hollywood. I have to say, all that I knew about this movie going into it was that it was about the Manson murders. If for whatever reason you haven't already seen this film, don't go into it expecting a thriller about the Manson family. They do play an increasingly important role in the narrative, but for the most part this is a story about DiCaprio's Rick Dalton and Pitt's Cliff Booth, two buddies that are both going through dry spells in their careers in the movie industry. The relationship and chemistry between these two characters is by far the best part of the movie, and Tarantino wisely allows the audience to spend time with them doing nothing in particular, at the same time allowing you to soak up the meticulously and gloriously realised reproduction of LA in 1969.
For 90% of this movie the classic Tarantino brand of violence is nowhere to be found. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the way the film was allowing itself to take its time in this sense, and during this time we get some scenes of real character depth, as well as some hilarious moments. There is also a deliciously intense scene towards the middle in which Booth visits the Spahn Ranch. It reminded me of a few scenes in Inglorious Basterds that invoked similar feelings of genuine paranoia, and was brilliant in its patience, allowing the pacing to slow all the way down in an already slow film. There is a definite feeling of emptiness, though, when it seems to end abruptly without any release. Instead it kind of just peters out and rushes on to the next scene without allowing any sense of catharsis.
Margot Robbie does a serviceable job at portraying the late Sharon Tate, although perhaps isn't quite given the screen time to allow the character to really shine. There is a wonderful scene, however, where she goes to the cinema to watch herself in a new film she is in, which is the strongest at portraying her character whose life was of course so tragically cut short by the Manson family. But like I said earlier, she isn't the focus of the movie. The focus is her fictional neighbours, Dalton and Booth. One of my favourite scenes involves Dalton on set shooting an episode of a television Western. It is a reminder of why DiCaprio is so often labelled on of the great actors of our generation. Not only is the scene an opportunity for Tarantino to show off his love for the era (as if he needed any more of those in this film), but it is a masterclass from DiCaprio.
Then of course there is that ending. Without spoiling it, it is incredibly jarring in comparison to the cool, laid back film you have been watching for near-on two and a half hours. I know for a lot of people it really worked, and bizarrely enough in the cinema I saw it in there were people whooping and cheering throughout the whole sequence (which is ironic given not only a scene earlier in the film but also the central set-up of the Inglorious Basterds finale). But for me it took me right out of the movie almost immediately. It had been set up so brilliantly with a well-placed acid-laced cigarette gag and some typically well executed tension building, but the way it played out pushed too far into farce for my money. I understand what Tarantino was going for, mind you - a gleeful humiliation of some of the most despicable people to walk the Earth - but after spending such a long time with the two central characters to have it end in the literal farce that it does didn't seem deserved or at home in the film it finds itself in. It's a shame, really, because it is the lasting taste in my mouth for a film that for the most part was funny, entertaining, and surprisingly moving at times.
In the end, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is good, but frustratingly close to being great. There are enough indulgences on Tarantino's part (an inexcusable scene with Bruce Lee included) to ensure it never reaches the greatness it is so clearly aiming for, and the ending deflates the experience for me somewhat. But despite that it is one of Tarantino's more mature films, and more than worth the price of admission.
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