Once upon a Time in Holloywood

Once upon a Time in Hollywood 2019

• Director: Quentin Tarantino
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Julia Butters, Bruce Dern, Al Pacino, Damian Lewis, Nicholas Hammond and many others
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Leonardo DiCaprio – The Great Gatsby, Inception, Shutter Island, Blood Diamond, The Aviator, Catch Me If You Can, Gangs of New York, Beach, Titanic, Marvin’s Room, Romeo and Juliet, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, This Boy’s Life
• Brad Pitt – World War Z, The Tree of Life, Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Babel, Troy, confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Friends, The Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven, True Romance, Thelma and Louise
• Emile Hirsch – Taking Woodstock, Milk, Into the Wild, Third Rock from the Sun
• Bruce Dern – Silent Running, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, The Wild Angels, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, TV series
• Al Pacino – The Merchant of Venice, Insomnia, Donny Brasco, Heat, Carlito’s Way, The Scent of a Woman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Frankie and Johnny, Sea of Love, Author Author, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Panic in Needle Park,
• Damian Lewis – Our Kind of Traitor, Wolf Hall, Queen of the Desert, Much Ado about Nothing
• Nicholas Hammond – Sound of Music
• Why? Highly recommended by good friend MR (would have seen it anyway)
• Seen: 21 February 2020      

       It’s 1969. Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) is an actor in popular western and action films. Cliff Booth (Pitt) is his stunt double and gofer. Sadly, Rick is a has-been and is advised by sleazy producer Marvin Schwarz (Pacino) to go to Italy to make spaghetti westerns. Rick is devastated but then he gets a serious role with director Sam Wanamaker (Hammond) himself (pre-Shakespeare and Globe, but he likes to encourage Rick to give a Hamlet performance). But he’s still a loser. Or is he?

       Bruce Lee, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Steve McQueen, Mama Cass and many others make an appearance. Flashbacks take turns with now so it’s a bit confusing and nothing much really happens for a long time but if you’re nostalgic for 60s music and TV series and the less-than-glamourous glamour of Hollywood it’s very cool.

       It’s Tarantino but it almost has the feel of the Cohen brothers. Which, of course, is high praise indeed.

       Twists and turns, weird side stories, some actually creepy, it’s not exactly a feel-good film.

       The ending? Well, it is Tarantino and it could have happened like this.

       But it didn’t. So, it’s not really a happy ending.

4 ½ * of 5