Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Much like Inglourious Basterds was set in an alternate reality, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood takes place in a slightly alternate 1969 Hollywood, California. At its core, the movie is about Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt. Rick is a television star who is past his prime, looking for the next role that will keep him relevant and solvent, and Cliff is Rick’s longtime stuntman, friend, and (thanks to Rick’s penchant for the sauce) his chauffeur. DiCaprio and Pitt are absolutely convincing as friends and, in a nice break from much modern storytelling, the two show absolutely zero signs of being even secretly attracted to one another. The always delightful Margot Robbie also performs as well as Sharon Tate.

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If that name rings a bell, the real-life Tate was a model and up-and-coming actress who was married to now-convicted-pedophile-and-child-rapist, director Roman Polanski (convicted in 1977, fled the country in 1978, won an Academy Award in 2003 – gotta love Hollywood). In the summer of 1969, a very pregnant Tate was murdered by a handful of Charles Manson’s acolytes. It’s this, the threat of Tate’s impending murder, that drives the entire subplot of the film, which is problematic because it ends up feeling like it was cut from a separate movie and mistakenly edited into this one. I’m old enough to have heard of Tate and, being a trivia buff, I knew what was supposed to come well enough to care, but I doubt that any viewer under the age of 40 had any emotional connection to the character. There are a couple of mentions of “Charlie,” who is Charles Manson, and one of the movie’s tensest scenes takes place at the Spahn Movie Ranch. However, again, if you didn’t know enough to put together those two references, there wouldn’t be any emotional throughline, especially since it is the only time, with the exception of the movie’s conclusion, that the worlds of the sup-plot and the main plot come into contact with one another in any meaningful way. I’m all for not spoon-feeding the audience but there needs to be some context within most films to carry the audience through.

With the exception of the last act, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is quite the tonal departure from other Tarantino projects. As mentioned before, it’s an alternate reality like Inglourious Basterds but lacks that movie’s focus. It foregoes the anime-like blood and gore of your Kill Bills and Hateful Eights, and even the frenetic almost oppressive dialogue of your Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fictions is limited to one (in my opinion) obnoxious scene. Where long shots held on one character were used to build tension in Inglourious Basterds, here they are used to convey the chill and easy vibe of 1960s California. It also lacks the cohesive story structure of other Tarantino projects, which is its greatest weakness.

The film is at its best when DiCaprio is on screen. There are moments of his performance that should be used in master classes to help teach how to act with your whole body. In one scene, his character is walking down the main street of a western movie set on his way to film his scene, and the subtle insecurity that he exudes can be almost tangibly felt by those who care about such things.

Pitt gives his usual charming and charismatic performance, being as comfortable in his own skin as only someone who has spent their life being that beautiful can. Cliff is a confident man’s man who has no qualms about doing the right thing. He takes what life has to give him, owning his mistakes and trucking on.

Robbie is utterly wasted in the Tate role. Don’t get me wrong, she’s completely invested, believable, and, of course, stunning. Unfortunately, she’s given nothing to work with. I can’t express enough what an afterthought the Manson stuff felt like. However, it’s such a small part of the film that it doesn’t take much away from the whole.

The first two acts are the most cohesive, following Rick and Cliff on their attempts to keep working in the business that is show. Rick, who’s been struggling with an offer to star in spaghetti westerns, decides that he needs the money badly enough and temporarily moves to Italy, where he ends up starring in four films. Had the film continued with this natural throughline and taken us to Italy with him, I think that Once Upon A Time In Hollywood would have been a significantly better film. Instead, we are jarred out of the movie’s reality with an out-of-left-field narration summarizing Rick’s time in Italy. It is random, fits nothing else in the movie, and sets up a tonal change that feels like Tarantino suddenly decided to shoot a different movie.

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There’s really not a lot to complain about here. Rick is self-absorbed and afraid but handles his $**t in private, except for one breakdown with his friend and another, in what is arguably the film’s weakest moment, in front of an obnoxiously precocious little girl. However, the film’s narrative doesn’t suggest that all men are like this, or even that it’s a good thing, and he doesn’t get rescued by some ball-busting heroine who can do no wrong all while substituting strength and character with dismissive snark.

Cliff is an imperfect man who lives in a trailer and eats boxed mac n’cheese but he’s a stalwart friend who accepts his life stoically. When it’s time to kick ass, he kicks ass. When it’s time to use his brain instead of his wang, he just tells his wang “no,” and that’s it.