- To my right is Bounty Law series lead
and JK Hill himself, Rick Dalton.
And to my left is Rick's stunt double Cliff Booth.
- [Jacki] "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,"
Quentin Tarantino's ninth and penultimate movie
before retiring from feature films,
cleverly showcases the writer/director's
encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and pop culture,
while also serving as a loving tribute
to a bygone era of films and stars.
Despite incorporating many elements
of the filmmaker's signature style, dark wit,
moments of explosive violence, kitschy references,
a great vintage soundtrack, and an overall cool vibe,
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" shows a more sentimental
side of the "Kill Bill" filmmaker.
And yet, it also displays many of his self-indulgences
and weaknesses.
It's not Tarantino's best work,
but it's still better than the best efforts
of other filmmakers.
- We get into a fight, I accidentally kill you.
I go to jail.
- Anybody accidentally kills anybody in a fight,
they go to jail.
It's called manslaughter.
- Burn, you Nazi bastards!
(laughter)
- [Jacki] The movie reflects the sensibilities
of an older and possibly more thoughtful filmmaker
than the indie bad boy who stormed the industry
back in the 90s with "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction."
There's still an undeniable coolness
exuded throughout this film.
Tarantino largely focuses his story,
which is primarily set over three days
in Hollywood circa 1969, on washed-up actor Rick Dalton
and his best pal, former stunt-double-turned-flunky,
Cliff Booth.
Rick is definitely played with feverish desperation
and crumbling vanity by Leonardo DiCaprio,
while an almost transcendentally cool Brad Pitt
delivers his best performance in years as Cliff,
whose sun-kissed appearance belies the inner darkness
that's cost him everything
but the affection of his dog and Rick.
Cliff is in many ways a more interesting
and complex character
than the narcissistic and fragile Rick,
but DiCaprio and Pitt share a breezy, boozy chemistry
that makes them great foils for one another.
The rest of the film follows actress Sharon Tate,
a beauty whose star is on the rise,
as Rick's is on the decline.
Portrayed here as Rick's next-door neighbor,
Sharon Tate, of course, was a real person,
whose brutal death by followers
of cult leader Charles Manson
has overshadowed her brief film career.
Margot Robbie plays her with a free-spirited vivacity,
but the character of Tate herself is not well-developed.
She's more a symbol of Hollywood dreams
than she is a flesh-and-blood protagonist
like Rick and Cliff.
In the end, you're left wondering what Tarantino
wanted to feel about them or his film,
save for leaving with an appreciation
for Hollywood's yesteryear.
That may be enough for those who want to ruminate
on the film industry, but emotionally speaking,
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and its characters
never quite register as strongly
as many of Tarantino's other films and protagonists.
Tarantino has once again assembled a stellar ensemble cast
that includes several veterans of his past films
like Kurt Russell, and great new additions,
such as scene-stealers Mike Moh as an egotistical Brucel Lee
and Julia Butters as a precocious child actor
Rick meets on the set of a potential comeback role.
The film is as much a love letter
to the Los Angeles of 1969 as it is to the films,
TV shows, and pop culture of that tumultuous era.
Tarantino and his team have painstakingly
recreated the greater LA area of that period
and its many landmarks.
But did we really need to see every street
and stretch of freeway Cliff drives along?
And those unnecessarily bloated stretches
only make one feel the film's nearly three-hour runtime
all the more.
The film is also chockfull of asides
to Rick's faux movies and TV shows,
from his heyday as the star of the '50s TV show Bounty Law,
to his later spaghetti westerns, war movies,
and exploitation films.
These are often hilarious and spot-on sendups
that lovers of B-movies and the Golden Age of Television
will appreciate and laugh at more than casual,
and frankly, younger viewers who lack a pop cultural context
to get the references Tarantino is making.
Indeed, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's" effectiveness
depends in large part on one's fondness
for the bygone era Tarantino is honoring.
But there are times where Tarantino
veers into self-indulgence.
There is another, and arguably larger, curiosity factor
for those going to see this film,
and that's the Manson family murders.
His interpretation was always going to prove divisive,
and the end results most certainly will.
As exploitative and jarring the whole sequence can be,
it also gives the film a jolt in its uneven second half.
While this climax never matches the masterful building
of suspense in an earlier sequence
where Cliff encounters the Manson family
on an old movie ranch,
the home stretch reminds Tarantino fans
of the edgy provocateur he started out as
after sitting through two-plus hours
of slow-moving industry nostalgia.
- Hey, you're Rick (beep)-ing Dalton.
Don't you forget it.
(jazzy music)
- [Jacki] Quentin Tarantino doesn't quite deliver
a grand slam with his penultimate feature film
"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,"
a languid but interesting exploration
of a particular time and place
and a loving ode to the pop culture
that informed his particular sensibilities as an artist.
But it also doesn't always land as viscerally
or emotionally as it could have,
and it never quite develops Sharon Tate
as more than an idea.
Still, the respective performances of DiCaprio and Pitt
and the film's meticulous attention to period detail
are all great and keep you invested in where this cruise
around Tinseltown will ultimately take you.
- Line?
- Cut!
- [Jacki] For more movie reviews,
check out what we thought of "Batman: Hush"
and "The Lion King."
And as always, be sure to follow and subscribe to IGN
wherever you like to watch.
- What does IGN even mean anyway?
It means whatever you want it to mean.