Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood

Regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t written a review since March. In fact, I’ve written only a handful of reviews since last October. There are many reasons for this, but the primary one is that we moved across the country to join Walter and Carol in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. All moves are stressful and time-consuming, but this one took every moment I could spare for a five-month period. It didn’t help that 2019 has, so far, not offered me a single film that is likely to make my top ten films of the year (note: many great films may have been made this year, but I have not had access to them).

But, for now, I’m back, with the latest film by Quentin Tarantino (which also won’t make my top ten). You may recall that while I have appreciated almost all of Tarantino’s films, not one has found its way into my top 300 films of all time, thanks in large part to Tarantino’s penchant for graphic violence. In this regard, Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood may be Tarantino’s most infuriating film yet.

Essentially a comedy-drama buddy film, the last half hour of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood becomes a graphic violence horror fest that leaves viewers like me shaking their heads and asking: WHY? Why was it necessary to suck the joy out of what was an engaging beautifully-acted story about two middle-aged men coming to terms with the decline in their careers, by ending the film with a completely unnecessary blood-bath? Tarantino precedes the blood-bath by having his young would-be killers talk about the consequences of watching too much violence when they were kids (concluding that there are decidedly negative consequences to exposing children to a daily dose of violence on TV). If exposing people to too much violence (especially redemptive violence) is problematic, then why does Tarantino do it? Or is the violence in his films supposed to be so gruesome that viewers will be repelled by it and see how awful redemptive violence can be? Doesn’t feel like that to me.

As the title suggests, the film is set in Hollywood. It’s 1969. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jack Dalton, an actor who has played the lead role in a major TV western and a number of films. Now he’s been asked to play the baddie and he realizes that his best days may be behind him. Jack lives alone in a mansion in Beverly Hills, where he drowns his sorrows in alcohol while trying to memorize his lines. Living next door are Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski, whom Dalton idolizes (more on that story in a moment). What keeps Jack going is his relationship with his former stunt man, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Cliff is a man with problems of his own, having been relegated from being a stunt man to being Jack’s driver and gopher. Cliff lives in a small trailer with his large dog, Brandy (one of the film’s best actors).

Cliff is a dark figure with a questionable past. While his story has its magic moments (like most of his visit to the isolated ranch where the Manson ‘family’ is living), it is not as engaging or rewarding as Jack’s story, which is full of magic moments (though not those involving Al Pacino, whom I did not appreciate in this film), especially those involving a precocious eight-year-old girl (played by Julia Butters), with whom Jack shares an important acting scene, and James Stacy (Timothy Olyphant), who plays the lead in Jack’s latest film. 

The Sharon Tate story, which has few connections to the stories of Jack and Cliff, also has some magic moments. Indeed, there are so many magic moments in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (and in many of Tarantino’s films) that it should have been an easy four-star classic. But then comes the ending. Those of us who remember what happened to Sharon Tate expect some form of violence, but what happens just wasn’t necessary. Indeed, in the hands of another filmmaker, this otherwise imaginative story may have had a wonderful ending. Sigh.

The acting was mostly Oscar-worthy (DiCaprio and Robbie were exceptional and Pitt had his moments). Bruce Dern has a notable cameo. The cinematography and music were great, the dialogue was (as usual for Tarantino) terrific and there is little to fault in Tarantino’s direction. So Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood gets a solid ***+. My mug is up, but there’s a bitter taste to the stuff inside that makes it much less than what it could be.