Not Tarantino's Greatest but Still a Hell of a Good Time!

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2019)

Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is definitely not his best but it's still pretty fucking good. Calling it right now, this will win best picture at the Oscars.
It'd be bold to call this DiCaprio or Pitt's greatest performances when Wolf of Wall Street and Fight Club exist. However, I'll definitely say they are spectacular in every way and put their talent into full use. Pitt is endlessly charismatic and DiCap is such a joy to watch.
The production design... holy shit! That is the real MVP of the film. Every thing on screen is so era specific and thoroughly wrapped me in the Golden Age of LA. Tarantino's script is hilarious and beautifully done as always and there were so many of his identifiable flares scattered around, even if there were a bit too many foot shots. Speaking of shots, the cinematography is... oddly done. There are an unusual amount of dutch tilts and even weirder, many of the tilts are close ups on the actors faces and it just looks bad. That being said, the rest of the cinematography looks pretty good and there are some truly impressive camera moves throughout.
Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood is a really well made film that has some glaring problems. The movie doesn't actually go anywhere until the third act. Every thing before it, despite being fun, add nothing to the movie. There are random scenes with Sharon Tate at the movies that amount to absolute nothing and... you know what? My biggest issues are with the Sharon Tate character. Margot Robbie is great as always, but the character is just kinda there, awaiting the looming third act. Of course you some scenes with Tate but they all felt boring and in the end, added nothing to the movie.
Overall, I had a hell of a good time watching this, even if it's not everything I was hoping it'd be. I avoided all reviews and plot details about the movie and I was thoroughly surprised with the direction it went. The entire third act contains some of the greatest work of Tarantino's career and there were so many moments where the audience I was sitting with couldn't help but cheer and clap. We were all 100% in for the ride and we experienced something amazing due to Tarantino and his phenomenal cast and crew that made a glorious picture.
Alamo Drafthouse - San Francisco