Entertaining but utterly pointless

Rating: 6/10 (4 May 2020)

In many ways Once Upon a Time.... is brilliant. It is visually stunning, with some great performances, especially from Brad Pitt who is outstanding throughout, and we are treated to some marvellous customary Tarantino-gore. However it lets itself down with a plot that is more like watching half an hour of five different films and without any real understanding of why half the scenes are in the final edit. For example why have several famous 'characters' who pop up then disappear without any sense of impacting the film other than to show that Tarantino knew who the movers and shakers of the day were? Although perhaps that is the whole point and maybe the intention is to flesh out the bizarre world of those in the Hollywood-arena who seem to be as equally disjointed as this movie. Just a shame that there wasn't a bit more plot development put into Once Upon a Time..... as it has the potential to be an absolute classic. A coherent story to go along with the stylish film-making could have made this movie great. There are lots of car journeys in the film that we follow but then realise they aren't really going anywhere, which is a bit like the flow of the whole film. If you like that sort of thing and enjoy unparalled amounts of shots of people's legs, endless cigarette smoking and random narration inserts, you'll love this. If you're looking for something more, you might not. One wonders if anyone but Tarantino had pitched this movie 'idea' would the studios have even considered making it?