A genuinely delightful glimpse of Hollywood during the 60s, with some great characters

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2019)

As is the case with any upcoming Tarantino feature, expectations for "Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood" were high. Tarantino himself had widely praised the Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt duo as one of the most memorable ever put on film. The vague nature of the synopsis, which suggested a link between the Manson Family murders and the story of a has been actor, fed the imagination of fans who could already picture a series of coincidences typical of Tarantino's films, blending both historical events and fiction in the same fashion as in previous opuses ("Inglorious Basterds" and "Django Unchained", to name the most obvious examples).
"Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood" tells the story of a Hollywood actor (who is actually a bit of a whiner) on the downhill slope, Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double, a failed actor turned stuntman, Cliff Booth (played by a Brad Pitt at the top of his game). The story is interspersed with a few scenes featuring Sharon Tate (played by the sublime Margot Robbie) who, at the time, was a star on the rise.
The film depicts the lightness of being that stemmed from 1960s Hollywood, taking us behind the scenes of the El Dorado of large-scale film production and amply showing the light-hearted attitude of a generation that smoked cigarettes relentlessly, drove luxury cars at full speed on the narrowest roads, hitchhiked with absolute strangers and spent nights dancing to the rhythms of bands that are now absolutely legendary. The many touches of humour and cultural references are very much enjoyable, so was the dialogue, which is delightfully on point. The greatest moments were definitely those few explosions of violence, which were as funny as they were over-the-top. The pace is slow and the characters are voluble. Tarantino took some rather bold liberties in writing: depicting Bruce Lee as a bit cocky and self-loving; implying certain things about Tate and her ex-boyfriend and, of course, the denouement of the story.
If there is one issue with the script, I would say it is a lack of dramatic impetus, as very few significant events punctuate the story, the outcome of which will seem to come from nowhere for anyone unaware of the circumstances surrounding Sharon Tate's murder. Although this cinematic experience is very pleasant, in retrospect, there is not much going on throughout, to be honest.
As a character-driven film, the dialogue largely compensates, but it would have been interesting to learn about these characters through a wider variety of situations/turning points. Also, the famous Booth/Dalton duo could have shared the screen for a greater proportion of the total duration of the film, in my view, as I agree with Tarantino that it was much fun to watch, with both actors bringing a nice chemistry to life with those two characters.
With a terrific cast, including Al Pacino, Emile Hirsch, Luke Perry, Kurt Russel and Bruce Dern and Timothy Olyphant, Tarantino offers us a film entirely driven by its characters, without whom the story would be of rather modest interest. It should also be noted that Margaret Qualley and Julia Butters both offer memorable performances that rank among the film's highlights. The direction and cinematography are stellar, and as in any Tarantino film, get ready for an awesome soundtrack as well.
All in all, in my opinion, although "Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood" does not qualify as one of Tarantino's very best films, it is nevertheless a delightfully fun film of very high quality, from which a contagious pleasure emanates.