A..."what if" ... done very well

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2019)

Answer this quick: Who is faster - Superman or the Flash?
How about this one: Who would win in a fight, Robin or Kato from The Green Hornet?
Or this: Could Muhammad Ali beat Mike Tyson?
These are those nagging question for some that when asked, everyone has a view on. And there is really no right or wrong answer as there is passion on both sides of these questions.
This...is another take on the same concept, and it works very well. Quentin Tarantino takes a question that has been floating around for decades and gives us a look into "what if" or...as every fairy tale begins, "Once Upon A Time".
We get taken back to the 50s and 60s and how Hollywood was. Now I've gotta be honest, as I watched I sat there trying to figure out who was a composite of whom in Hollywood. For me, it was like trying to figure out who the character Warren Beatty was in "Shampoo" when I wasn't even around to understand it back then (i saw it 13 years later after it was out!), however it was fascinating to read it was a cross between Jay Sebring and Jon Peters. And this movie..has that Jay Sebring in it.
And that was the interest for me in this, and where Quentin does what he does well - mix the pulp, but give you lots. There was lots of nostalgia, and lots of "tell" of the Hollywood industry - back then...and some of now. Leonardo Di Caprio played what I saw as - "every actor in the world" - he was known and at the cross roads in his career, and his only friend was his stuntman played by Brad Pitt. Yeah -- you get that Brad's character should have dumped him years ago and went out on his own, but by the end of the film, you got something that is few and far between in Hollywood..."real friends". And you get to the point in the film where friendship is faced with "the end of the road".
There are great "cameos" in the film of both ACTORS and CHARACTERS of that time such as seeing the late Luke Perry made me choke up a bit, and it was full of "Tarantino -isms". The film may be long to some, I found the length fine. I found the story of this friendship coming to a head around one of the worst occurrences in Hollywood in the late 60s, done well. But make no mistake, the whole thing is based in a fairy tale, one that has all the fairy tale trappings including a happy-ever-after.
And you know what? After watching this and knowing what I know -- what we all know -- yeah, I wished it would have all ended that way. I wish the world was wonderful, and people were nice and kind, and that Hollywood wasn't so dog eat dog...maybe...Once Upon A Time....Once Upon a Time. Ah-ha!
A great break from all the Special Effects and Superhero films - a great entry into the nagging question and the fantasy aspect of it playing out -- while "telling" on Hollywood. (Make no mistake, Tarantino DID tell a lot of stories in this one!!!) This is truly...a great film.