What I’m watching: the new Tarantino movie, ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’

Date: 8/7/2019

What I’m watching: the new Tarantino movie

In theaters: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

There are many of Quinton Tarantino’s films that I do love and will watch repeatedly but I don’t this his ninth and latest film will be one of them.

While there are many things I admire about the film, the fact that the structure of its ending is identical to “Inglorious Basterds” surprised me and frankly, struck me as lazy.

Having said that, this is a more disciplined Tarantino film – he seems to alternate between projects that are focused and those that seem to run wild. “Once Upon a Time…” is definitely a love letter to a very interesting time in Hollywood and the mainstream film business in 1969.

That was the year that “Easy Rider” changed the focus of Hollywood from mainstream blockbusters to movies aimed at younger audiences and to the era of the director as a superstar.

Although Tarantino doesn’t reference that film, by setting it in 1969 he is noting the end of an era in the film business. It is a time during which new talent emerged and a certain kind of innocence was lost.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays actor Rick Dalton, essentially an action star who has spent much of his career as a Western hero on TV. He now finds himself at a crossroads. He is now doing a lot of guest starring on TV series as a villain, something that ultimately may kill future opportunities for him.

Dalton’s best friend is his long-time stunt double and handler Cliff Booth, played with remarkable cool by Brad Pitt. Booth is much more a go-with-the-flow kind of guy and the two have an interesting and effective chemistry.

We follow Dalton as he works on a TV show as a guest star as well as Cliff who keeps seeing the same young woman hitchhiking until he gives her a ride.

It seems she is part of the Charles Manson “family” living out on the Spahn Movie Ranch, a set for Westerns where Booth once worked.

The third storyline is one centered on the actress Sharon Tate, who along with her husband Roman Polanski, are Dalton’s neighbors.

These three elements converge in this film: Dalton and Cliff dealing with Dalton’s falling star; Sharon Tate’s rising star; and the inexplicable evil represented by the Manson family.

All three parts of the story are played out in an absolute pop culture re-creation of Hollywood in 1969. On the soundtrack is an amazing collection of contemporary music. Visually there are TV shows playing the background, movie posters and theater marquees that set the time. It’s very impressive and for someone like me it’s almost overwhelming as you try to make note of it all.

This attention to detail is one of the film’s most admirable qualities, as are the performances. Dalton is an interesting and complex guy, struggling with the insecurities of being a mid-range actor. Booth is the most laid back guy in the story and, yet, is incredibly likable. Margot Robbie as Tate is a delight – a person who is truly enjoying her career and seems to have little ego about it. DiCaprio, Pitt and Robbie nail their roles.

For anyone who knows a little of movie history, they know that Tate and several friends were senselessly murdered by members of the Manson cult.

For me the film falters in the finale. The repetition of the plot device from the “Basterds” is the main reason. I thought it was just lazy filmmaking to do something that was so audacious and worked so well in the previous film, but here feels like a cop-out.  

I also felt the plotline of Dalton and Booth, as interesting as it was, was not ultimately as compelling as it should have been.  It was a rambling shaggy dog story, gossipy but not truly memorable.

At least the pacing of the film was better than Tarantino’s last movie, “The Hateful Eight,” a film that dragged itself from illogical bit to illogical bit with the speed of a glacier.

So while I liked the film in many ways, it did not come together as well as some of his previous films.