Ho-hum Hollywood Hokum

Rating: 1/10 (2 August 2019)

'Once Upon a Time . . .' continues Tarantino's decline as a writer and director, although the principal weakness of his latest film is a rambling screenplay which develops neither story nor characters. Set in LA at the time of the notorious Manson Family killings, the relationship between fading alcoholic TV star Rick, and his long-time stunt double Cliff takes center stage. Unfortunately neither man has much personality, the pair share a tired connection and their exchanges never hint at the electricity between Vincent and Jules in 'Pulp Fiction', or Louis and Ordell in 'Jackie Brown'.
The movie looks decent enough, but oodles of time is wasted venerating the trashy films and TV shows of that era. There's an endless passage where Rick delivers some routine over-acting as a cowboy villain in a formulaic TV pilot, inter-cut with Sharon Tate visiting a cinema to watch a spoof spy movie in which she had a minor role. Voice-overs laboriously explain the narrative gaps as more than a hundred minutes are spent on a procession of scenes which do little more than provide background. Eventually, the ghostly apparition of an actual story emerges after Cliff gives one of Manson's hippie runaways a ride to the derelict movie ranch where the 'Family' were residing. The ensuing confrontation shows the potential of Tarantino's idea - but he loses the plot again in order to pay homage to spaghetti westerns.
The 'action' finally arrives at an overblown climax which gives Tarantino yet another opportunity to show off his chops as a director of theatrical violence. He gives reality a fairy tale tweak in this last act, but it's hard to think of the film as anything more than self-indulgent fluff.