Once Upon a Time In Hollywood Review

Right, its time for a new post on the blog and it will be a review on a new film for a change and the film is question is Quentin Tarantino's latest, Once upon a time in Hollywood.

So, how does this film stack up against Tarantino's strongest bodies of work??? Well, let's find out...

And the usual warning is coming....

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!! SO DON'T READ THIS NEXT SECTION IF HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM YET!

STORY

So, the story follows two fictional characters, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) a Hollywood actor, who was formerly the star of a 1950's TV show, Bounty Law and his good friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Dalton at this stage in his career has reached the realisation that his career is on a downward turn after a meeting with a casting agent (Al Pacino) who advises him to make Spaghetti westerns, which Dalton thinks are beneath his abilities. Dalton also by this time has become something of an alcoholic and Booth as it turns out is his personal driver after Dalton has been subjected to a number of DUI's. Booth on the other hand has also had struggles to find stunt double work after rumours involving the death of his wife (which he was alleged to have killed). 

We also find out early in the film that Dalton just so happens to be neighbours to Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and director, Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) as the film is also set loosely around the Manson murders and indeed there is a scene where Manson makes an appearance looking for a record producer.  Dalton realising how ailing his career is also longs to befriend Tate and Polanski to get his career back up and running again. 

However, Dalton's luck appears to take a turn for the better after he lands the role of a villain in a western TV show called Lancer where after a breakdown during his performance, he soon recovers himself and goes onto impress the director, Sam Wanamaker (Nicholas Hammond) and his co-star, the 8 year old, Trudi Fraser (Julia Butters).

Meanwhile, Booth picks up a young hippe hitch-hiker named "Pussycat" (Margaret Qualley) and takes her out to a ranch farm where she says the rest of her family are. It soon becomes apparent that the family are indeed members of the Charles Manson family and Booth is curious to chat to the ranch owner, George Spahn (Bruce Dern) as he once worked there on Dalton's former series, Bounty Law but Spahn doesn't recognise him. As Booth leaves, he finds one of his car's wheels has a knife in it and he beats up the man responsible, "Clem" Crogan (James Landry Hebert) and forces him to change the wheel.

And from here things take a series of twists and turns for Dalton and Booth as things are set to change for both men's careers while the ever looming threat of the Manson killings are due to rear their heads...

THOUGHTS

It has to be said that while it is an enjoyable film, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood does also remain one of Tarantino's weaker films as there are times where it just feels like he is relishing in the Hollywood period of the time a little too much. Also again there are times where the film does drag on and its almost like Tarantino had to give this film an epic run time to give that much more an "epic" feel and I think it would safe to say that there are moments of the film that could easily have been trimmed for timing.

However with all said, there is still plenty to enjoy in the film after its admittedly slow start, it does begin to pick up its pacing as it goes in and Tarantino also builds on the uncomfortable troubling times of the period with the Manson murders but of course without giving anything way, Quentin certainly has his own unique take on those proceedings. The two leads characters are also somewhat likeable and have certain amount of charm even if Dalton still has a buzz of arrogance to him and Booth is a pretty impetuous guy where his bolshy attitude get's him into trouble on Hollywood film sets.

The film of course was also notable as being controversial on different fronts, particularly regarding its portrayal of the real life celebrities, Bruce Lee and Sharon Tate. Bruce Lee's portrayal in particular took heavy flak from many including Bruce's daughter, Shannon, who saw Bruce being depicted as an arrogant guy when she said he was nothing like that. Sharon Tate's portrayal was also given criticism by Sharon Tate's sister, Deborah, who saw the film as being exploitative and told lies about the real-life events.

PERFORMANCES (No notable scenes this time!)

As for the performances, well this is of course where the film does excel as the cast are all on top form here.

Starting with Leonardo DiCaprio who is great in his role as Rick Dalton, an ailing Hollwood actor, who is worried his career might soon be over. This is Leo's second collab with Tarantino and again here he produces a great performance only this time, Dalton is a more likeable if egotistical character than his unpleasant slave owner in Django Unchained. Leo also shows he has a good knack for comedic timing and he has quite a few funny moments, particularly one scene where he berates himself in his trailer during a break from filming a scene for the TV show, Lancer. Not sure if Leo will get an academy award for this role but its still a fine performance from him here.

Brad Pitt up next is also excellent in his role as Cliff Booth, the cool-headed stunt actor, who acts a double for Dalton and Brad of course plays the charater with a laid back charm but also with a sense of danger as the kind of guy that could be dangerous when pushed.  Booth also plays a key part in the scenes involving the Manson family in the film that lead up to the film's suprising end and I won't say anymore about it than that! 

Margot Robbie is also very good in her role as Sharon Tate, who was noted as something of a B-movie actress in her Hollywood career and married Roman Polanski, who around this time had great success with his horror film, Rosemary's Baby. And Margot plays the part very well and with a kind of youthful innocence although I do kind of feel her role was somewhat marginalised a little next to the roles of the Leo and Brad's.

Of course the film has a pretty big cast, so it would be difficult to describe all the players in the movie, so I will mention just a few below for the supporting cast.

Margaret Qualley does pretty well in her role as the young hippie, "Pussycat" which Booth briefly befriends and turns out to be a member of the Manson family and she definitely portrays her character as a bit of an airhead but with a great deal of unpredictability about her. Qualley herself is infact the daughter of the actress, Andie MacDowell.

Julie Butters also provides a nice little performance as the child actress, Trudi Fraser, who acts belong side Dalton in the TV show, Lancer. And Leo and Julie both share a charming scene together while both Dalton and Trudi are on their lunch break together and Dalton reflects on his failing career.

Mike Moh despite the controversy he faced with his performance, also does very well in his role as Bruce Lee and he even manages to sound almost exactly like Bruce, if not entirely look like him. It would be fair to say though that Moh does play Bruce somewhat arrogantly here and I can see why his portrayal might have offend some people, most notably actors and people that worked with Bruce back when he was alive. Despite this though, Moh does a pretty good job with his main scene here and he himself sees Bruce Lee as one of his main idols.

Dakota Fanning also has a notable albeit small role in the film as the real life Manson family member, "Squeaky" Fromme and she plays the part with a rather sinister and abrupt manner that makes her's one of the memorable performances in the movie. Fromme in real life as one of the Manson family, later attempted to assassinate US President, Gerald Ford in 1975 and went on to serve a life sentence and was released in 2009.

Austin Butler does very well also in his part as the real life Manson family member, "Tex" who was one of the killers involved in the Manson murders and Butler certainly shows Tex to be a very unsettling character as the film becomes pretty intense toward the end.

Emile Hirsch also provides a good performance in the film as Jay Sebring, who was the former boyfriend of Sharon Tate and was also one of the murder victims in the Manson family killings. Sebring himself was a hair stylist who had befriended Sharon Tate and went on to become good friends with both Tate after they split and Roman Polanski.

Al Pacino does pretty well too in his brief role as Marvin Schwarzs, a casting agent who convinces Dalton to make Spaghetti westerns. Again this is no more than a cameo role with Pacino and given its a pretty big cast, I guess Pacino had to be squeezed in there somewhere even if he doesn't headline the film himself.

And last of all is Kurt Russell, who plays the part of Randy, a fictional character who works at Hollywood and had a serious dispute with Cliff Booth as he suspected him of murdering his wife (i.e. Cliff's not Randy's!). Russell also acts as the film's narrator but his narration doesn't come into the film until much later on.

DIRECTOR 

As for the writer/director, Quentin Tarantino does a pretty good job overall although I do admit I think he has over-stuffed the film with some unecessary moments here and there, which I will try and avoid going into too much detail just now. Tarantino of course isn't afraid when it comes to history to embellish on certain things, so if you think you are going into this one expecting a slice of real life then you are sure to be disappointed. Tarantino still does manage to keep the viewer interested for the most part but I do still think he has directed better films than this.

MUSIC

As for the film's soundtrack, again its a mixture of popular tracks of the time during the 60's from artists and bands such as Deep Purple's "Hush", Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson", Vanilla Fudges's "You keep me hanging on", Neil Diamond's "Brother's Love Travling Salvation Show" and Jose Feliciano's "California Dreamin". Its pretty much what you would expect from Tarantino in his period films, so its a decent mix of tracks that fit the period.

FLAWS

As for the film's flaws...well yep it does have some however I won't really go into them in any detail given that it is a new film.

So, for starters what I would say is that the film's running time at 2 hours and 40 minutes is just a bit too long and the film certainly does actually feel a bit boring at the start and it did take me a while to get more into it. And by that I mean there are scenes such as Brad Pitt making dinner for himself and his dog and later on where he goes up onto the roof to fix Dalton's TV aerial but this scene in itself is just an excuse for Brad to take his top off, so Tarantinto could presumably have Brad show off his abs for the ladies!

I also felt that the film does take quite a few liberties with the truths and facts surrounding the Manson family murders but again I don't really want to go into this one just now but suffice to say you won't walk out of the cinema thinking you saw a fully accurate account of those events! What I will say is that Taraninto is no strangers to embellishing certain things and he is certainly guilt of that here.

I also felt that some of the film's characters were pretty annoying at times such as Pussycat, who is just an over excitable airhead for the most part, who is more than eager to try and get into Cliff's pants (almost literally at one point!). And further to this there are also some pretty nerdy exchanges going on between certain characters in the film later on that kind of made me a cringe a bit but again I won't mention who they are but you should get the gist when you see it.

And last of all I found the film's use of narration somewhat strange as it appears closer to the end of the film as we suddenly hear Kurt Russell's voice come out of nowhere! I mean, if they wanted to include narration why not keep it a bit more consistent in the film rather than just slap it on near the end, which to me made little sense why it was even needed in this case.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is by no means a bad film, in fact it is overall pretty enjoyable and its film that has a charm of its own as the performances for the most part are very engaging and Leo and Brad do very well in their respective roles. However, I can't help but feel that Tarantino is being pretty self indulgent here as he loves to wallow in the period of Hollywood history of the time and there are times where he get's caught away with the film's run time and throwing in some inconsequential moments. And yes of course, Tarantino's depiction of Bruce Lee (or rather Mike Moh's) is somewhat questionable as he comes over more an arrogant dick than a respectful martial artist looking to make it in the Hollywood industry.

But if you can forgive the film's flaws then there is still enough to enjoy here for OUATIH (for short!) to keep you interested.

Right, so that's it for now and I'll see you in the next one!

Bye for now!