History 101, Tarantino Style

Rating: 10/10 (27 July 2019)

Going in to OUATIH, I thought that this was going to be along the lines of a character study of an actor and his stunt double. Boy was I wrong, what I got was a signature Tarantino film (maybe even his best) with colorful characters, gorgeous set pieces and a look back in time.
We follow the character of Rick Dalton (Leo DiCaprio) and the relationship he has with his best friend and stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Dalton is at a point in his career where he feels like a washed up, has been and Cliff is along for the ride to act as his right hand.
Parallel to this are the couple who lives next door to Rick, the real life couple of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate (Margo Robbie).
With the insertion of Sharon Tate, we as an audience know where the film will most likely end up. A tragedy that still haunts Hollywood to this day. I will not divulge what happens in the last half hour, but it's worth the price of admission.
The writing is quintessential Quentin Tarantino. We've seen shades of these characters before (when Leo plays the villainous cowboy, it's easy to see his character from Django). You have cameos galore (Kurt Russell, Al Pacino, Dakota Fanning and a hilarious segment with Bruce Dern). When the hippy presence gets more and more prominent the tension goes through the roof especially when the name "Manson" gets thrown around, and then we cut to a pregnant Sharon Tate, the writing is on the wall.
Performance wise, both of our lead actors deliver! Between the two I found myself leaning towards Brad Pitt as he seemed a tad bit more likable (the part where his character encounters Bruce Lee is awesome). But Leo is has his moments too, the blurred lines of comic and bad ass is splendidly acted. When it comes to Margo Robbie as Sharon Tate, her presence looms large over the film even when she's not on screen. When she is on screen however, the beauty and the innocent nature of the doomed starlet is captured excellently to the point where I wanted to give her a hug. There is a segment where she sees a recently released movie she did with Dean Martin in the theater and all Margo does is react to the film, and the reactions of the audience around her. Academy please remember Margo come January 2020!
The soundtrack is very Tarantino, not much of a score but lots of old classic rock and roll that he incorporates perfectly. And the scenery is fantastic, it's like you get a tour of LA in 3 hours.
All in all, hands down, favorite film of the year thus far