VIEWS ON FILM review of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Rating: 6/10 (26 July 2019)

"That was the best acting I've ever seen in my whole life". Uh, not quite Leonardo DiCaprio but you'll always be one of my favorite stars in this lifetime or the next. DiCaprio and a host of well-known troupers (with amorphous cameos) litter the screen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Anyway, "Hollywood" is a kaleidoscope of nostalgic images, a cinematic objet d'art if you will. It's the 9th film from legendary helmer Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino will never make anything as good as 1994's Pulp Fiction. He knows it and we know it. Basically, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood dutifully escorts that trend. "Hollywood" while harboring a whole lot of movie (within a movie), meanders in shape and overall form. Made to order as Q.T.'s powered final cut, it's probably one of the most scattered editorial efforts in his 27-year canon.
In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino uses every directorial trick in the book (and even some stuff borrowed from other filmmakers). Quentin's sense of time and place is luscious (Hollywood, CA circa 1969), he loves to film old TV sets (and grubby feet), he rocks some obscure music, his attention to detail is totally enterprising, and he gives us a balls-out surprise ending. It's just too bad "Hollywood" doesn't know what it wants to be or what it really wants to say. 161 minutes go by and there's a final act of gratuitous violence that Tarantino is quintessentially known for. Howbeit, said graphic violence doesn't quite bind together what feels like mostly a kooky comedy/drama.
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing and containing some tacked on narration by Kurt "Snake Plissken" Russell, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood involves washed-up actor Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), and the Charles Manson saga involving the real-life Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Tarantino intertwines their stories through flashbacks, lasting back and forth cuts, reworked history, and Tinseltown ins and outs. The actors take it sternly, the production designers do their job, and Tarantino knows where to put the camera a la every dewy-eyed frame. Still, "Hollywood" beats its own drum and provides the audience member with an uneven viewing experience. Might I suggest watching Robert Altman's The Player instead. Rating: 2 and a half stars.