Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood is
writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s personal
love letter to old Hollywood that recreates a rich pastel of movie marquees of
the day and a fable that mixes fact and fiction amid the turbulent sixties.
In
1969 Los Angeles, Rick Dalton (Leonardo
DiCaprio) is a TV star whose career is in freefall while his buddy and stunt
double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) struggles to find work. While Rick’s work
takes him overseas filming Spaghetti westerns, Cliff befriends a hippie girl
who belongs to a commune run by Charles Manson. As the decade comes to a close,
Rick and Cliff share a fateful drink as actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and
her friends gather next door. Meanwhile, Manson followers approach with
murderous intent.
The
film crosscuts among the principals, tied together by circumstance, and
contrasts the class disparity between the wealthy elite and the lowly stuntman.
Few writers can write dialogue like
Tarantino, and his sharp screenplay methodically builds character relationships
and standout sequences including a Playboy mansion party, a TV western
shoot, a wildly tense meeting at a remote ranch, and the violent finale in a
Hollywood home.
DiCaprio is
outstanding as the hard drinking, insecure actor, but it is Pitt who excels in
a choice role as a pragmatist with a shady past.
The excellent supporting cast, stocked with Tarantino’s repertory actors,
includes Julia Butters as a child actress who excels in a scene with DiCaprio.
Pop culture
references abound with legendary hotspots, styles, and music, and special effects seamlessly blend
actors with actual footage. This is
fascinating, revisionist cinema that is ultimately Tarantino’s self-fulfilling,
reinvented version (think Inglourius
Basterds) of a Hollywood fairy tale.
(There is an amusing end credit scene.)
***1/2 of **** stars (add ½* for
Tarantino fans)
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