Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood

I do not love Tarantino’s work of late as much as he so obviously does. I understand all the homages that he’s creating and the nods that he makes, and yet I am ultimately bored by them because he drags them past their point of logical conclusion. The scene in which Cliff, played super cool by Brad Pitt, walks through the Spahn Ranch is a wonderful and chilling reference to films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where threats are found in a simple landscape or a sideways glance; then, this scene goes on and one for twenty minutes and only gives the wonderful Bruce Dern one modulation to play: cranky, which admittedly he does better than any one alive right now. The period detail throughout the film is fantastic and fascinating to look at, but at some point, I wanted the plot to get moving along. I understand that Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood is a hangout movie, but even the best hangout films saunter along at the right points (look to The Big Lebowski for an example of this).

I thought the Di Caprio and Robbie were both great, their performances interacting at opposite ends of the spectrum, with Rick Dalton being verbose and lost in contrast to Tate’s angelic figure that watches over the whole film. When Dalton ascends to the top of Cielo Drive at the end of the film, he walks into an alternate reality, a heaven where the good feelings of the sixties and the Golden Age of Hollywood with all its hackneyed promises never ended. I appreciate that Tarantino allows his characters in the film to exist as they are, in all their ugly and/or divine glory. Having Tate in the film was a key point in my liking this film better than The Hateful Eight: unlike the latter film, there is somebody in the former who is good and in whose welfare the viewer can care for.

Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood could have been half an hour shorter and still been as good as it is. I think that Tarantino is slowly evolving into a novelist: perhaps after his tenth and self-avowed final film he’ll transition to that medium. I have a feeling that his eye for detail and willingness to sit in a moment will translate well there.