Once upon a time in Hollywood
Hooray for Hollywood
Hollywood in the 1960s was one hell of a place. One city on the edge of the deserts and plains became the centre of gravity to which all western pop culture was inexorably drawn. Films became a bold and expressive art form, TV shows made thousands of kids dream of adventure and fame, and a whole lot of egos jostled for space and relevancy. There are thousands of stories you could tell about that place and time, but Tarantino chooses instead to tells us an American Fairy Tale of TV cowboys, stuntmen and Hollywood stars.
Once upon a time in Hollywood is Tarantino's latest cinematic offering and it does not disappoint. It worth stating that up top because the rest of this review could very easily just become me gushing over it for 400 words. The film stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Brad Pitt as Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth, a TV cowboy and his Stuntman who have fallen from their former fame into the occasional guest starring role. The two of them serve as our point of view as the film drifts through an excellent recreation of 1960's LA. Dalton tries to get back his former fame and passion, whilst Booth happily rides around all day, shuttling Dalton from set to set. Neither of these men are real, but they feel so fleshed out, and played to such absolute and total perfection, that you almost want to IMDB their names just to check if they might have actually been real.
They are joined by a veritable who's who of New Hollywood. Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen, the list goes on and on. You can feel the glee that Tarantino felt as he put the character list together. Every Tarantino film is very indulgent for him, but this one seems like he made it almost exclusively for himself. Yet it doesn't feel like that, it feels like a love letter to a decade and a place that he wishes he could have been to. It's actually quite charming in that way.
The production and editing is top notch, every detail is polished to a near mirror sheen. Costumes and set design are excellent, with plenty of time spent taking in the sights of Hollywood. Grauman's Chinese Theatre, The Cinerama Dome, Cielo Drive, all are given some screen time (helped very much by the fact they're all still standing). And the soundtrack is, like always with Tarantino, brilliant, interspersed with actual ads and in-betweens from the long-gone KHG radio. Every step taken makes the world feel as though it was all still there and not buried under 50 years of history and change.
A fair piece of warning for you. If you do go to see this film (which you certainly should), its not going to go quite how you expect. The film does have what can be best described as a jarring left turn very suddenly. But just remember that it's a fairy tale, and all fairy tales have at least one foot in the truth and the other is fantasy.
Once upon a time in Hollywood is Tarantino's latest cinematic offering and it does not disappoint. It worth stating that up top because the rest of this review could very easily just become me gushing over it for 400 words. The film stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Brad Pitt as Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth, a TV cowboy and his Stuntman who have fallen from their former fame into the occasional guest starring role. The two of them serve as our point of view as the film drifts through an excellent recreation of 1960's LA. Dalton tries to get back his former fame and passion, whilst Booth happily rides around all day, shuttling Dalton from set to set. Neither of these men are real, but they feel so fleshed out, and played to such absolute and total perfection, that you almost want to IMDB their names just to check if they might have actually been real.
They are joined by a veritable who's who of New Hollywood. Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen, the list goes on and on. You can feel the glee that Tarantino felt as he put the character list together. Every Tarantino film is very indulgent for him, but this one seems like he made it almost exclusively for himself. Yet it doesn't feel like that, it feels like a love letter to a decade and a place that he wishes he could have been to. It's actually quite charming in that way.
The production and editing is top notch, every detail is polished to a near mirror sheen. Costumes and set design are excellent, with plenty of time spent taking in the sights of Hollywood. Grauman's Chinese Theatre, The Cinerama Dome, Cielo Drive, all are given some screen time (helped very much by the fact they're all still standing). And the soundtrack is, like always with Tarantino, brilliant, interspersed with actual ads and in-betweens from the long-gone KHG radio. Every step taken makes the world feel as though it was all still there and not buried under 50 years of history and change.
A fair piece of warning for you. If you do go to see this film (which you certainly should), its not going to go quite how you expect. The film does have what can be best described as a jarring left turn very suddenly. But just remember that it's a fairy tale, and all fairy tales have at least one foot in the truth and the other is fantasy.
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