Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood Film Review - Quentin Tarantino Directs His 9th Symphony With Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt & Margot Robbie In A Story That Might Have Been

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2019)

If we could change time then Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood is the 160 minute fairytale about what really happened in the Hollywood Hills one summer night in 1969. With Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, a stammering cowboy on the set of a tv series called Bounty Law, the one that isn't Bonanza, and his stunt double Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth. Cliff is not doing so much stunt work, but mainly driving Rick around, since he lost his license for being DUI. And although Rick's popular, he's getting to the end of his tv cowboy career with his show just being cancelled. Maybe he should try Italian cowboy films suggests Al Pacino as producer Marvin Schwarz. But Rick's not ready to eat spaghetti yet. Not with Pilot season coming up. But Marvin Schwarz and his wife love Rick and he's really keen for him to consider it. He can only take so many punches as the fall guy. Maybe that should be Cliff?
Back at home high up the Hollywood Hills, Rick glimpses his new neighbours he's never seen. Only the hit director of Rosemary's Baby; Roman Polanski, and new wife Sharon Tate. And we know the countdown has started to what is coming in this loving pastiche to razzle dazzle Hollywood. Tarantino takes the faded backlots of the late 1960's Hollywood movie sets and mixes them with stunning cinematography by Robert Richardson. Filming shots at the real spots that Sharon visited and adding a flavour of Taco Bell to the Hollywood Boulevard set.
Cliff drops off Rick and his nice car, to work on his lines, I love Rick's way of working (!), and drives his own wreck to his home on the wrong side of the tracks. A trailer with his well trained dog Brandy. Cliff may have got away with murder in Hollywood, did he or didn't he (?), but he's certainly not living the high life. Although he seems like he's just doing fine, and Brad is looking pretty damn good.
Margot Robbie is on fire as Sharon, arriving on a Pan-Am flight, just like her character in the cancelled tv programme of the same name. I thought it was great. She was an air-stewardess, but here she's flying first as the sweet young actress who one day goes to watch herself in her latest movie. Looking around, just in case, before she puts her glasses on. But loving the audience's reactions to her klutzy character. The costumes throughout by Arianne Phillips nail the era's vibes with Brad's Hawaiian shirt, he's so cool, and Rick's wanna-be leading man in his tan leather jacket. And Margot's costumes are amazing, that black polo and white mini skirt and boots will have a fashion moment.
And while Rick and Cliff are drinking and slowly sliding into has-beens, Sharon; Hollywood's latest new young thing, is living the high life, partying with the Mamas and the Papas and other celebs at The Playboy Mansion. The music is a highlight and Damian Lewis an almost unrecognisable Steve McQueen giving his opinion of Sharon and her marriage to Roman. She has a bright future ahead of her in the Hollywood studio system. And when the choreographed lights get switched on at twilight in Tinseltown, the stars come out to play. Cliff would dearly love to be included in their circle.
But in those Hollywood Hills are also a feral family of hippies, they need to go to Vietnam (!), instead scavenging in bins for LA's left over food, and led by the infamous Charles Manson. Cliff and Rick see them around town, we only catch Manson himself in one scene, skulking around at the Polanski home. But Pussycat catches Cliff's eye. Margaret Qualley, who recently played an exquisite Ann Reinking in the delicious Fosse/Verdon, is the underage temptress. Look out for her highly arched ballet feet! But Cliff's too smart to get caught out. And drops her home at the old western ranch where they filmed Bounty Law. Here the 'family' are living, and he's the stranger in town. But he makes it clear that he wants to look in on the owner, played by Bruce Dern, to make sure he's okay. Cliff can still kick a door down if he needs to, and Dakota Fanning is a particularly nasty Squeky. But she can read how a scene would otherwise play out, as she lets him in.
And when Rick lands a role with Kurt Russell as stunt co-ordinator, he takes on Cliff as a favour to Rick. Much has been made of the scene with Mike Moh's Bruce Lee. I did read that Bruce was criticised for being too hard on his stuntmen. Well rightly or wrongly Cliff evens the score, but gets fired for his services to stuntmen everywhere. But don't worry, Rick has a DIY job for him. Shirtless with a tool belt, are you kidding Quentin? Brad's still got it.
And Rick is still landing parts in pilots and gets a prized Sam Wanamaker gig. Meeting his young co-star Trudi, played by Julia Butters, he describes the book he is reading to her in one of the films most tender moments. But when he fluffs his lines in Lancer he really takes it out on himself, did he break a mirror or was that my imagination?, but being hungover is no illusion. He knows he needs to quit. And when he nails the shoot with Trudi, they are fantastic, well he's still got a part in an FBI themed pilot screening tonight. And of course Marvin loves it and it's a spaghetti dinner all round.
And while Rick and Cliff are in Italy making westerns, Sharon has been feeling uncomfortably pregnant in LA. Husband Roman is away filming and she has her friends over on this hottest day of the year. The day Cliff and Rick fly back home with Rick's new Italian wife. This is getting tense, we all know Tarantino's on screen violence. And while Cliff is smoking an acid trip while walking Brandy, Rick is making a frozen margarita and his wife played by Lorenza Izzo is sleeping off the jet lag; a dark car creeps up the Hills towards Sharon.
You can do all you like about the violence in Tarantino's films, I'm sure there's more violence in the gaming industry where you pull the trigger, and critic Caspar Salmon at The Guardian really got his knickers in a twist about the ending! His review is a real spoiler so don't read if you haven't seen the film yet. But for me Hollywood is Tarantino's best. With the greatest and most well deserved violence. An amazing cast with a host of guest cameos and plenty of parts for the children of Hollywood's celebrities, Once Upon A Time is the fairytale I want to remember. It has comedy and pathos in equal measure. Brad and Leonardo are a delicious double act both at the top of their game, did Margot Robbie have less lines? Did I notice? No, because with Tarantino her Sharon Tate was luminous and the role to remember.
Tarantino's 9th Symphony will be remembered as his masterpiece, a fabulous love story to Sharon Tate and Hollywood.