My Review from Cannes

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2019)

Once a Time in Hollywood, the new film from contemporary trend setter Quentin Tarantino is a masterful and lushly directed spectacle that may well be his best film since Pulp Fiction.
The film tells the tale of Rick (Leonardo DiCaprio) an actor that currently appears in a TV show called Bounty Law, but his career is begging to decline, so his agent (Al Pacino) advises him to take a role in a Spaghetti Western. Meanwhile his stunt double, best friend and driver (Brad Pitt) spends much of the movie palling up to Rick and giving him advice. The pair live next to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate and the story eventually leads to various joint storylines, romance, drama, action, Charles Mansion and a finale to rival the audacity and awe of Inglorious Basterds.
OUATIH is a beautifully photographed movie with exquisite and enchanting cinematography including a four-minute long stedi-cam shot that may just be an Oscar worthy moment of photographic exuberance. Tarrantino's script is Tarantino-esque and continues his theme of running retro significant references to the late sixties, witty dialogue, pop-culture, smart one-liners and complex movie references. Tarrantino however needs a new editor as some scenes are overlong and too sharply cut. This doesn't ruin the movie but it looks poor and does lessen it.
As for the performances, I can tell you now that there will be certainly Oscar nods for Pitt and DiCaprio and the later's performance is in fact so good that it may we'll be his best so far in his career. Scorsese's insistence of working with DiCaprio ruined some of his movies that would have been better with another performer but this was only a benefit for Leo who has impressively grown as an actor. Here as Rick he brings the confidence of his turn in Wolf of Wall Street and the stature of his Shutter Island portrayal. Pitt, who is ageing well, gives a performance that is scene stealing. In OUATIH, it's almost like he is unaware of the camera and he has a natural rapport with it and never seems aware that he's playing a character. There are some other good turns including a incredibly impressive Bruce Lee take off by Mick Moh.
OUATIH is one of the best (but not the best) film of 2019 and will be long remembered by Tarrantino fans.