Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood (2019) – 4/5

C’era una volta il Tarantinoland

„Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood“ is an American movie from 2019, so still really fresh and new and this is without a doubt gonna be a big player this awards season. The reason is of course that the man in charge here of script and direction was a certain Quentin Tarantino. There are some parallels and some differences compared to his other recent films. First of all, the movie takes us again back in time, but this time not as far as the days of slavery and also not even as far as the days of WWII, but „only“ into the year 1969. Like with other (recent) films from him, it is really long, clocks in at over 2.5 hours, but also as with other films from him, it does not feel this long because of how good it is. Looking at the cast, you will find familiar names you have seen in Tarantino films not too long ago. DiCaprio was a key supporting player in his previous work, Brad Pitt was in the one before that. If you pay close enough attention, you will also see brief appearances by Tarantino regulars Russell, Madsen and Bell. Tim Roth also shot scenes, but they were deleted sadly. Still, you can see Tarantino is a loyal filmmaker when it comes to who he casts, not Fassbinder level maybe, but still. But there are also other actors in here who (I think) have not been in Q’s works before. This includes the great Al Pacino and Bruce Dern who I like as well and who has one scene only in here. I also liked to see Timothy Olyphant in here as I really adored him on Justified and it’s kinda fitting he plays in here in a year when a Deadwood movie was made and became quite a success. Also, he’s on Fargo now, so his career is going strong. Dakota Fanning many will recognize here, but she did not do too much for me. I have always been more of an Elle Fan(ning).

Who else? Oh yeah Luke Perry who sadly died not too long ago has also one scene here together with DiCaprio. Emile Hirsch was okay. Damien Lewis, well I have never been a big Homeland fan admittedly, even when he was on it, but his one-scene turn as Steve McQueen was pretty hilarious how they talk about Sharon Tate’s taste in men. And there we have the name of the central female character already, namely the one played by recent Oscar nominee Margot Robbie, certainly one of the hottest actresses on the planet right now, well I mean in terms of how much people are interested in their talent, not only in their looks, even if I as somebody with a preference in dark-haired girls cannot call her unattractive either. She is stunning. And while I was not really won over by her acting talent after Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street, her role selections as Harley Quinn, Tonya Harding and now Sharon Tate were not only daring, but also, she really made a lot with these characters honestly and she was memorable in this film here too, which was admittedly impressive because she had far from the baity material Pitt and DiCaprio did. Maybe the reason was that she rarely had to share the screen with others or at least not with others who really took the spotlight away from her and with that also I mean Polanski, who wasn’t present anyway in the key scene at the theater (that was all hers) and also at the end of course.

So you already saw I mentioned several scenes that really made an impact, but even if the overall outcome and congruent story line was certainly not bad, it was not nearly as great as the individual scenes, but then again that is really something that applies to almost every Tarantino film. I will mention another handful of scenes that stay(ed) in the mind. The one I think of immediately is the one with the child actress, the little girl who plays the character that DiCaprio’s character in character holds hostage. This hostage scene with how amazed she is by him and his performance and improvisation is also pretty good, but not nearly half as good as their first meeting that is about the books they read, especially about the book Rick (LDC) reads and in which the main character stands for DiCaprio’s character himself. I mean Leo was good there too, but the girl was a true scene stealer. The name is Julia Butters and I am truly curious about what we will see from her in decades to come. I hope she stays in the industry and of course stays as great as she was here. Then also the flame thrower scene. That was also pretty funny earlier when Rick Dalton asks if they can turn the temperature a bit down and the guy working there says something like „Rick, it is a flame thrower“, but again of course when Tarantino picks up on this gadget near the end with one of the intruders being at the wrong end of it. It’s pretty hilarious and epic when Leo comes out with it in his hands and I laughed a lot.

Now I mentioned Leo a lot, but the one who deserves at least as much praise here is Brad Pitt who finally seems to have managed to cut himself loose from the ugly aftermath of his marriage to Angelina Jolie and has two promising films and performances coming out here. So, Pitt had many memorable scenes too and he gives it the right approach without a doubt. I am talking about the moment he pushes Bruce Lee into an expensive car, the scenes with the hot young girl (now I am not sure I could have resisted her) and what followed in what looked like outback when he goes to visit Dern’s character. There it was a typical scene when you expected some escalation or anything because of how tense the atmosphere was, but it stayed all relatively harmless surprisingly except the tire changing perhaps at the end. And with Pitt you also have to mention the scenes at the house of course with his dog. I mean nobody can make a starving dog seem as entertaining as Tarantino that much is safe. The dog wasn’t even cute and still I could not look away. As for the end, it is really violent, but this is also Tarantino and if that keeps you from watching the entire film, then that’s your loss. Like, REALLY violent with what happens to two of the three intruders. I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say the dog is not a chihuahua and Pitt’s character basically the canine’s human equivalent. Last two movies it was the racists and the Nazis (well they are racists too, aren’t they?) who really got punished hard, this time it is the satanists.

Okay what else can I say here. I mean Tarantino is a big film junkie and film fan everybody knows, so no surprise you can literally see on the screen how much fun he had making a film about the movies here (even if in the broadest sense Basterds was that too, but not to such an extent). As a consequence, it is packed with interesting and captivating references about the world of movies, not just about Polanski and Rosemary’s Baby, but a lot different stuff too. And Tarantino used many fun songs for this one too. Not the film’s greatest strength, but only because other aspects were better. As for the ending, you never knew where this was heading. Obviously, he would not give us an authentic retelling of the events that night when super-pregnant Sharon Tate was killed in cold blood by Manson’s helpers, but instead his own take, his fictitious take on things. This alone should be obvious already by the use of Dalton and Cliff Booth (Pitt) who I believe are completely fictitious characters, so no surprise that the ending also had nothing to do with how things went that night. I usually hate unrealistic fake endings for the only purpose to have audiences leave the theater with a smile, but this is totally not it here. It was a great choice and execution as we see Rick enter Tate’s house to play cards or so with the gang. Actually, what he dreamt of as he mentioned earlier to be included in her and Polanski’s circle of friends. As for Leo, the film also could have ended already for all I care the moment when he is totally moved by the compliment from the young actress as he did not add too much later on again, well except the flame thrower scene of course. That alone was worth it to continue his story line in the pool.

Okay now, I started my review to talk about awards attention and I will finish it like that too. I am not sure if this film will give Tarantino another screenplay Oscar, but a nomination seems really safe and a win also possible. Some even list him first for Best Director at the Academy Awards, but even if i thought this was mostly a great watch I am not sure this should be the film that gets him his first director Oscar. It is not his best work, maybe not even Top3, but good to see him this strong again in his mid 50s and if it takes like five years between his movies always, then I am really looking forward to his next effort already when he will be like 60. Maybe Kill Bill 3? Come on Quentin, we’ve been waiting for it so long. Anyway, as for the awards, Brad Pitt is considered a frontrunner for the Supporting Actor Oscar right now at this admittedly really early stage, but I am also a bit skeptical here. I mean he was good and all, but is it a performance that really stands out in his career compared to other stuff he did? I don’t know. But it would not be entirely undeserving I guess. Same with Robbie who had a more difficult challenge here than it seems to the untrained eye I think. As for the film’s Best Picture chances, I will wait with a final verdict there. It is in my top3 right now from 2019 with the other two having no chance to win Best Picture, but lets see what I think about the other nominees, such as Scorsese’s new film of course. Okay back to Hollywood now, very fitting that Tarantino claimed this film title after OUATI the West and OUATI New York and he sure is deserving and what he did with this movie is more than just repectable. So overall, a big thumbs-up. Do I even have to say this one gets a bold positive recommendation from me? It’s Q after all. Watch. Highly recommended.