Great, But Not The Best Tarantino

Rating: 10/10 (27 July 2019)

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is a grand fairy tale set in 1969 Hollywood when Hippie culture was clashing with the luxurious lifestyles of A-list celebrities who populated the area. Somewhere in the middle we have Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Pitt), a television actor and his stunt double/best friend who live somewhat modestly as Dalton struggles to make it "big." Dalton is also an alcoholic, and sometimes talks with a stammer which gives off a nervous vibe for the character. Early in the movie, Dalton becomes worried that he is a "has-been" since the offer he is getting is to star in some Spaghetti Westerns - a genre in film that he thinks is terrible for some reason. One final thing to note is that he lives next door to Sharon Tate and, more importantly, Roman Polanski, and he thinks it would be a big opportunity for him if he were to meet the director of Rosemary's Baby.
Anybody who is familiar with Tarantino can tell that in terms of cinematography, editing, and especially production design, this is clearly Tarantino at his best. There is a great sequence in the film that follows Rick Dalton as he acts in front of a camera for a Western in which he plays the antagonist. The audience is meant to see these scenes in this fictional movie as it is theoretically supposed to be edited together, but it is done in real time. At one point, when Dalton calls for a line and they have to "reset to 1," it is a representation of how filmmakers actually work as the camera pulls back to its original position and dissolves the illusion of the movie within the movie that we are watching. Every shot in this sequence is masterly crafted to give us the feeling that we are still watching Hollywood and not the Western, only we are seeing it from the point of view of the camera filming the Western. Above all, the framing of each shot is spectacular.
One thing that is extremely different in this movie compared to most Tarantino movies is actually the use of dialogue. Most of the dialogue in the film does not sound like Tarantino dialogue. Instead of standing out with elaborate metaphors and analogies, a lot of the dialogue simply moves the story along in Hollywood. That is not to say that the dialogue is never in the spirit of Tarantino. There is plenty of dialogue in the film that proves to make the audience laugh out loud, yet what the characters say is not particularly smart or witty in the Tarantino fashion. Regardless, it is nice to see a Tarantino movie where more focus was put on the visuals and structure of the movie rather than making sure the dialogue was top-notch the whole time.
If this film shaved off about 20 or 30 minutes it would be almost perfect. Unfortunately, a lot of the movie drags since there is only a little excitement spread here and there throughout - that is, except for the last 15 or 20 minutes. The most exciting actor to watch in this movie is definitely Brad Pitt. In Inglourious Basterds, Pitt had to put on a ridiculous accent for a character who was decent at best. In this film, he does almost the opposite - Cliff Booth has a quiet and reserved nature about him, yet he is intimidating to watch once we learn about this mysterious past which disturbs other characters in the movie to think about (think Hans Landa saying "I love rumors" at the beginning of Basterds). Tension that is built in scenes involving Booth is the closest we ever come to a scene with the quality of the opening of Basterds. We simply do not know what Booth is going to do next when placed in dangerous situations.
Overall, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood proves to be an enjoyable experience. While it feels a little too long, it is funny throughout, it looks great in terms of visuals and production design, and it has great performances by all three of its stars. It is not top-tier Tarantino, but it is a great movie nonetheless.
9/10