Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood… Take Nine… and… Action!

The Synopsis
The year is 1969 and the sun is slowly setting on the career of Hollywood actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio). Even his new neighbours, director, Roman Polanski and his actress wife, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) haven’t taken the time to introduce themselves to the slowly fading has-been.

Riding the sunset into the forgotten right alongside Dalton is his stuntman, best friend and chauffer Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Persona non grata in the industry due to a sketchy incident in his past, he is content with how little his life has to offer.

Juxtaposed with the shifting pieces of Hollywood Hierarchy – Hippies. Creeping in along the fringes of society and ready to sink their claws in – their message is unfortunately on the darker side of peace and love.

What my cinema companion said:
“Errmmm, I thought it was the weakest of Tarantino movies for story arc”

The Good
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood had this weird surrealist vibe that I was really into. Like the title suggests, the movie takes an excerpt from a story. Only Hollywood – though to some, is a land far far away – is a real place. We know it as where actors live and movies are made. Watching Leonardo DiCaprio act as an actor, and playing a role who played a role was incredibly trippy. It was fact, it was fiction, it was satirical and it was done really well.

On that note, there were a number of stellar scenes from DiCaprio as Nick Dalton that reminded us of his range and general greatness as an actor – not that we ever truly forgot. (Particular shout out to the DiCaprio’s trailer scene!)

In general, understanding what I think the movie was trying to do, this was a well-crafted movie with some interesting elements, built around a core fact.

If you are a Tarantino fan – or you’re just super observant, you’ll know that there are certain actors who have starred in the bulk of his movies. And on that note, I have to say I enjoyed the cameos from some of these aforementioned actors. I’ll save you the spoilers let you pick them out for yourself.

The Bad
My major flaw with this movie is that it relied heavily on you being contextually aware of who certain people were and their stories to boot. Though I knew the obvious ones; Bruce Lee, Steve McQueen, Roman Polanski – I had no idea who Sharon Tate was and didn’t see the Manson link at all. Though this didn’t take me away from the story of the film I was watching, I think knowing would have given me a different movie to watch.

I thought Pitt’s character – Cliff Booth – was the one with the most complex layers from the titbits we were told about him, but he never said or did much. Even when he did something interesting, it didn’t mean anything or drastically steer the story. We were given so many juicy nuggets of his life that sadly were left to get stale and forgotten.

Sure, we all know Tarantino movies are long. But my God did I feel all 161 minutes of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

This isn’t really a negative point per se, but the advertising surrounding Margo Robbie was insane compared to her screen time – which was incredibly minimal.

The Conclusion
Hmmmm how to conclude this?

I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie. There were a number of incredibly enjoyable sequences as well as characters whose depths we got a peek into. Unfortunately for me, most of the movie was a random and dissatisfying build up with a story that sits just on the edge of having potential.