Fascinating

Rating: 8/10 (24 February 2020)

I am not a big QT fan. I haven't seen all his films, and I spent a lot of time covering my eyes for those I have watched. But I enjoyed every minute of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
I was a teenager in 1969 Los Angeles, living only a few miles from where the Tate murders occurred. Tarentino brilliantly recreated this moment - it is visually stunning and hugely evocative. The scenes at Spahn Ranch have the perfect touch of menace and fear, and the sense that something evil was about to poison the culture. The spaced out peace, love dreaminess of those days ended horrifically with Charles Manson.
I had family and friends working in the entertainment industry: I knew many like DiCaprio and Pitt. The supposed plotless quality of the film mirrors the plotless quality of those lives. There wasn't much thought beyond the next gig. He also nailed the portentous and pretentious quality of B actors, and the desperate grasping to stay relevant. The constant self involved discussion. The continual ego building. Aimlessness was the whole point.
Finally, I've bumped up against controversy around his depiction of women, in this film and in general. I can't comment, as I haven't seen all his movies. But for me , there was something intensely satisfying watching the murderer become the murdered. Tate and her baby were stabbed something like thirty times. I liked seeing this knife wielding fanatic go up in flames, even if it was only 'once upon a time.' If you lived those years, and the horror of her story and the La Biancas, you so want another ending. A different night, a different house, a different set of circumstances, and Tate's baby would be fifty years old. Oh, the terrible randomness of fate.