All style, no substance

Rating: 5/10 (17 August 2019)

'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' is set in 1969 Los Angeles and follows TV actor and almost-has-been Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stunt double/friend Cliff Booth (Pitt) as they try to stay relevant. Given it's a Tarantino film, there's plenty of long shots of just actors talking - probably too many. While Margot Robbie is third billed, it feels like she has about 10min screen time and is almost pointless to the story.
It's good to watch DiCaprio and Pitt together and there's a natural ease and confidence to all their scenes. The problem is that half the film is just Pitt driving around and DiCaprio acting on a set. There are plenty of nods to the late 60s - Playboy Mansion, drive-ins, the fashion, dozens of film posters, smoking in almost every scene, snippets of songs - but overall, it doesn't really come across as nostalgic, just gimmicky. Might be more impactful if you lived through it.
Plenty of cameos/small roles - Pacino, Hirsch, Olyphant, Dern, Dunham - but none of significance. There's Roman Polanski (Zawierucha), Charles Manson (Herriman) and Bruce Lee (Moh), but all have minimal screen time - except Lee, who's portrayed as an idiot for some reason. It's basically 2 hours 20min of nice cinematography - although too many shots of peoples shoes as they're walking - and then a hyperviolent/crazy final 20min which half links some of the film together. As an entire film, it struggles to keep your interest, there's only a few funny moments and has a very loose plot.