Quentin Tarantino’s latest feature film, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, is the type of pure cinematic joy that only he can deliver. It is the type of blazingly original movie that has become increasingly rare in the last decade, so when a new Tarantino flick arrives, it truly feels like a feast for the famished. So how does it stack up to the rest of his exemplary filmography? When you compare a Tarantino movie… you compare it to every other movie that wasn’t made by Quentin Tarantino. The movie gives 3 compelling main characters, 2 fictional and 1 real and allows us to spend a few days with them. The format of Once Upon a Time allows Tarantino to play with the tropes of several genres all within the construct of one movie, while at once, largely being a hangout movie. All of this with the Manson family and the Sharon Tate murders looming over the proceedings like a ticking time bomb.
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a fictional former television star from a hit 50’s TV western who was never quite able to make the transition to the movies. He has a fairly lavish life in the Hollywood hills but is riddled self doubt and wallows in self pity for the successful movie career he was never quite able to realize and takes to drowning his sorrows with alcohol. There is such a compelling humanity to Rick that is present in all of us, so focused on what we don’t have that we don’t realize what we do have. He is so blinded by self doubt and what he thinks he should be that he never realized what he could be if he applied himself. This leads to a fantastic scene on the set of a new show where Rick has a conversation with Trudi, a young child actor, who helps him realize what he could be if he took acting seriously instead of just saying his lines. Through thick and thin, Rick has his best buddy Cliff at his side.
Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) is one of the coolest Tarantino characters to grace the screen, and that is saying something. Booth is Rick’s stunt double best friend. Rick and Cliff are from a time in Hollywood where actors would have stunt doubles they paired up with for all if not most of their work. With Rick’s work consisting mostly of guest roles as villains on TV shows since his unsuccessful foray into movies, Cliff doesn’t get much work anymore as a stunt double. Instead he is Rick’s loyal driver, handyman, gopher, and anything else Rick might need. Cliff lives a simple life in his small trailer with his beloved dog and drives, and while he has considerably less than Rick, he is much more content with what he does have. There are also rumours circulating that Cliff killed his wife and got away with it, so any day Cliff isn’t in jail is a pretty damn fine day to Cliff. Having been a stunt man, he is very capable in hand to hand combat, and really just any situation that arises. He is very laid back, but very confident, cool and collected. If Rick’s character is a portrait of the self doubt that lingers in all of us, Cliff represents the cool self confidence we all wish we could be.
Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) is obviously the main character who is based on the real person. Tate is not featured as a main character as much as Rick or Cliff, but in the case of portraying a real person, less feels like more here. Tate’s name is so inextricably linked to the tragedy of her murder that it is a form of catharsis to see her portrayed here as the warm, positive, affectionate, bubbly person she was, by all accounts, in life. We get to just hang out with her for a day or so and go to one of her movies with her. Her character is handled with an understanding and a reverence that she isn’t some fictional character but was a real person.
Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood is so unique in its construction that it really allows Tarantino to play within several genres all within one movie. It is a period piece set in a fully realized, living breathing, 1969 Hollywood, where we cruise around and listen to the radio with Rick and Cliff. It is a western when Rick is filming his scenes for the western TV show he is filming, until we pull back and the illusion is broken and pulls back the curtain to show us behind the scenes of 1969 era Hollywood. The scenes involving the Manson family really step into the territory of horror/ thriller/ suspense movies. All the while Tarantino makes the bold choice to really make Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood a hangout movie. For the most part, he drops any pretense of a specific plot driving the movie forward, instead we just spend time with Rick, Cliff and Sharon as they go about their business for a few days. He really just lets the world he has created and the characters who inhabit it breathe and come to life in their own rights. They are so well written that he has the confidence to do so.
Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, like most if not all Tarantino movies, really stuck with me for a few days after seeing it. This is the mark of a truly great movie, that it leaves you with things to think about and how you feel about those things. I think it after much reflection it has earned its way into my list of favourite Tarantino flicks, alongside Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, in no particular order. As with each of those movies, Once Upon a Time is so distinctly its own experience and yet unmistakably Tarantino. Being a hangout movie, like Jackie Brown and the Big Lebowski, it gets better upon multiple viewings. Once you get the lay of the land in your first viewing, you really can just sit back and enjoy each and every scene as it comes to life and jumps off the screen. If you have not seen Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, go as soon as possible. And if you have, go again.