"Once Upon a Time....In Hollywood"

One of the most highly anticipated movies of the Summer Movie Season has been Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood".  The movie takes place in 1969, and while it is hard to come to terms that a movie that takes place during a time in which you yourself lived can be considered a "period piece", that is what Tarantino has given us.  He lovingly creates Los Angeles and Hollywood during the winter and summer of 1969, right down to the fashions, hairstyles, the movie marquees, and the songs being played on the AM radios in the cars that everyone is driving.  That's one thing to love about this movie.

Another is the story.  It centers around Rick Dalton, an aging, just about over-the-hill actor played by Leonardo DiCaprio.  His hit TV western series, "Bounty Hunter", has been long canceled, and he is reduced to playing bad guys on various TV series like "Mannix" and "The FBI".  The only hope to salvage his career, says hot shot producer Al Pacino, is to move to Italy and make spaghetti westerns, something he doesn't really want to do.  His long time buddy and stunt double, Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, really has become a has been, begging for work and being reduced to a driver and go-fer for DiCaprio's Dalton.  Dalton lives in a home in the Hollywood Hills, right next door to the home of hotshot director Roman Polanski and has movie starlet wife, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie).  Rick is hoping that maybe he can get to know him and maybe land a part in the next big Polanski movie.

The acting is superb.  I have never seen DiCaprio be bad in a movie, and he is great in this.  There is a scene where he converses with a young female child actress while on a movie lunch break that is wrenching.  Same for Pitt.  He just might be the key figure in the whole story, as he comes to terms with the decline in his career, as well as the discovery he makes when he picks up a young hippie teenager and drives her to her commune at the Spahn Movie Ranch.  Pitt is now 55 years old, believe it or not, and he shows every one of those years in this movie, and to good effect.  

Finally, there is Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate.  Young and beautiful, she plays Tate as a woman who can't believe that she has "made it" in the movie biz.  She is positively charming in a scene where she goes into a movie theater and watches herself on screen in a Dean Martin movie.  It is a wonderful scene.

Then there is the story itself.  You know all along that this story will end with that hot August night when Charles Manson sends his minions into the Hollywood Hills to do his evil will.  The tension in the build up to the event is palpable, and then.....well, I won't tell you what Tarantino does next, but remember, the name of the movie begins with "Once upon a time...."

I had a couple of concerns going into this one.  One, would it be a typical Tarantino bloodbath of gore and violence?  Also, at 2 hours and 40 minutes in length, would it be too long to sit through?

The answer to the first question is No, not a lot of gore and violence, although, given the subject matter, there is some of that.  As to the second question, the answer is also No.  Never looked at my watch once as the movie unfolded.

And as an added bonus, you also get a good look into the movie business.  How they get made, the schmoozing and politics that go into it, much of it often cutthroat, and how actors really "act" when they are being filmed.

I kind of knew that I would like this movie going into it, but it turned out better than I thought, and I ended up loving it, and I am not a Tarantino acolyte as so many people are.

This one get the full Four Stars from The Grandstander.