Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood - Review

 Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood” visits 1969 Los Angeles, where everything is changing, as TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) make their way around an industry they hardly recognize anymore. The ninth film from the writer-director features a large ensemble cast and multiple storylines in a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood’s golden age, who while are.

REVIEW: "Once Upon A Time" threads a rather unusual story line needle through the societal and cultural complexity of transcendence of one generation to the next and also the weird oddities of how sometimes the slightest decision can change historical fate.

With transcendence Tarantino looks in the rear view mirror of America to focus his screenwriting talents on the year 1969. He sees it  as one of the most unique moments in America culture, probably far more transcendent for us all than we have ever imagined. And through his lens and words he looks at the year focusing on the celebrity famous and not so famous as well as their fashion, art, politics, power, fame, beauty, entertainment and yes, even death. He brings this convergence of issues through that fabulous alternate universe observant conversational mind of his by focusing the story on two fictional actors whose relationship with one another “more than a brother and less than a wife” as two men who are reluctant – resistant to change. And in the backdrop of these two men lives is a cult family hanging initially very innocently in the shadows as some small harmless counter cult just wanting to live free without rules or having responsibilities.  If the world was torn apart or started to burn one day that would be OK with them.

Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth are the past and they also are the alter egos of one another. One (Rick) is the embodiment of emotional excesses………..always drinking, smoking and worrying  while the other Cliff (Pitt) exudes charm, wit, and confidence;  always cool under pressure and supremely capable in his abilities. Together they are deliciously codependent upon one another as a dying breed of men in Hollywood who are not just ready yet to accept the new counterculture movement who in their minds are always hell bent to being disruptive; not wanting to accept the norms. For these two old timers they see the “Hippie” movement is just something that is not cool and it will never been cool and they want nothing to ever do with it. So, Rick and Cliff are like all other generations; at some point they think their time was the best to doing things but just like most former generations they are always the last to see the change coming and there is nothing they can do about it.

Beneath transcendence QT also delves into how fate can sometimes change events in the universe with just a simple decision or conversation. To that point if you don’t know, in 1969 the real actress Sharon Tate (played by Margot Robbie), was brutally murdered in her home on Cielo Drive along with four of her friends. The killers (the cult mentioned above) lived not too far away at the Spahn Ranch and occupied by disciples of a then failed musician named Charles Manson. As a backdrop to that murder Tarantino uses the difficulties of Rick and Cliff up and down professional lives in an industry that seemed to be passing them by to offering up a slightly different alternate ending to the Tate’s murder, predicated on a decision Rick and Cliff made months before. And let me say this alternate ending to that tragic night was shocking, very violent, very delirious, very funny and filled with tension.

“Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood” is hard to characterize largely because it’s just not like any of QT previous works. This work is far more pedestrian, far more patient and far more respectful to the people and events his tries to draw upon that were prominent in 1969. And while I think a lot of his fans will come out wondering what they just experienced I felt the whole 2:45 minutes running time down this fictional lane in 1969 was very entertaining.

Through Quentin’s use of layers upon layers acting cameos and subplots including appearances by Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Zoe Bell; Al Pacino as a bottom-feeder agent, and Lena Dunham and Dakota Fanning as two of Charles Manson’s dim witted disciples, this film will be studied in films schools for decades as a homage to old movies, especially westerns, counter culture change and oddities of how the simplest of decisions can change historical fate …………….impacting an array of lives while  seemingly while they are just making ordinary plans.

“Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood” is a bit of an intellectual mind twist – a mind challenge, but I wager you can never stop thinking about what you just saw.

3.50 Stars