A Beautiful Homage to an Era Long Gone

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 2019)

This may not be Tarantino's best film of all 9 he's accomplished, nevertheless, this one remains one of his finest works. Tarantino pays a very beautiful and marvelously done tribute to the Hollywood era that raised him and that stood out for being the last great epoch for American entertainment. If you've seen his previous films, you will notice he adds a touch of classic throwbacks through references of his favorite genres, from exploitation films to spaghetti westerns. In this film, however, it's an entire feature that perfectly encapsulates the era in which all those genres he dearly loves emanated from. Tarantino deviates us from his recognizable plot developments and instead takes us in a "hang-out" plot journey, in which what matters isn't necessarily what will happen to the characters, but what the characters are doing in a specific event. It's about getting to know the characters more personally, thus reciprocating with Tarantino's intention for the audience to be immersed into a 1960s Hollywood setting. If you watch closely, in this film, Tarantino focuses in the sound, (radio stations, TV shows announcers), and the images (cinemas, drive-ins, posters, city life), and uses the characters in order to navigate these time-era elements. It's definitely clear that Tarantino made this movie a nostalgia voyage, and he depicts this era as a precious gem that was taken away by the counterculture as its later expressed in the film. Truly for me this film experience was invigorating to my soul as a cinephile, Tarantino fan, and a lover of the classic genre.