ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD (2019) MOVIE REVIEW
Quentin Tarantino is back with his ninth feature film Once Upon A Time
in Hollywood. From Reservoir Dogs to Django: Unchained to now,
Tarantino has rightfully been earmarked as one of Hollywood’s best directors.
Known for his impeccable casting and unique writing, the legendary director is
still going strong with this latest endeavour by creating a controversial
homage to the golden era of Hollywood filled with all the colourful characters
one would expect from 1969 Los Angeles.
Fading television star Rick Dalton
(Leonardo DiCaprio) is trying to get back to the top in a world that keeps on
passing him by. With the help of his stunt-double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), they
attempt to get Dalton’s career back on track in amongst this new but somehow
familiar acting world consisting of new faces in and outside the world of film.
Following this duo’s journey through L.A is one to behold and manages to carry
much of the movie thanks to DiCaprio and Pitt’s magical chemistry. During times
when the film slows down is when the writing truly begins to shine. Whether it
be dramatic or down-right hilarious, the script rarely misses the mark and
makes for some of the movie’s best moments. With Pulp Fiction being one
of my favourite films, the vibes I got from said movie kept popping up all
throughout Once Upon A Time in Hollywood because of the dialogue. Unlike
Pulp Fiction however, the story felt incredibly jointed but in all the
wrong ways.
The overall plot itself was nothing too outlandish but still felt a
little messy in places thanks to random cuts to Margot Robbie’s portrayal of
Sharon Tate. This is where one of the controversies for the film lies as Margot
Robbie featured heavily in promotional material for the movie as legendary
actress Sharon Tate but in the end had very little dialogue and screen time to
work with. Alongside the supposed mistreatment of the late 1960s, there was
plenty of reason for critics to lambast Tarantino’s latest flick. These critiques
I found to be void as the story felt more of an homage rather than an attack on
the golden era of Hollywood. As for Robbie’s lack of screen time, minimal
appearances often made her character more engaging and came full circle by the
movie’s climax.
Despite not being as strong as his previous films, by no means
does this make Once Upon A Time in Hollywood a bad movie. Far from it in
fact. Thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s impeccable writing and directorial talents,
the Hollywood world brought back to life fifty years later truly is something
beautiful to see and shows just how far films and television have come since
their earliest days.
OVERALL
8 / 10
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