Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood Puts Both Feet Forward

Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood (2019)

Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood is Quentin Tarantino’s most recent film and it is a little messy, with intention. It is an alternate series of events surrounding a famous 1969 event. I am hesitant to specify the event, because somebody might see it as a spoiler. This movie would have been much more clear if I knew more about this event before going into the theater. After studying up since watching, a couple more scenes make more sense, but that doesn’t fix the odd flow and pacing of the movie. The movie is composed of two parts, early 1969 and a night in August 1969. During the early 1969 section, the story is broken up and randomly jumps between veteran actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), and fledgling actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Dalton and Booth are given the lion’s share of the character development and Tate looks pretty. During this time, we see Dalton and Booth go through adventures and existential crises and we see Tate watch her own movie in a theater. I struggled to get a read on the movie for all of this time period. It was too sincere to be tongue-in-cheek and too honest to be parody. Many critics more experienced than I are saying it is a love letter to old Hollywood, but I did not get that vibe. It was interesting and DiCaprio and Pitt carry the movie with great performances, but it felt like more of a love letter to feet than to old Hollywood. Seriously. There were at least 30 minutes of feet shots in this movie, from feet walking, to being propped up on a dashboard, or being the focus of the shot in a cinema. I found it slightly off-putting, but I guess Tarantino’s target audience is Rex Ryan. Fortunately, feet were not the focus in the second part of the movie. In order to discuss the second part, I need to reveal what the event in 1969 was, so I will provide the score and then continue the review with spoilers below. Overall, I didn’t mind Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood. It was weird and quirky and all over the place, but the acting and script held it together. I give Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood 41000 of the approximately 68000 feet that lived in Hollywood in 1969.

Spoilers Below (or not if you know your Hollywood history)

The event that was modified was the Manson murders and that last act of the movie takes place on the night of those murders. This is where the movie comes together. It stops being about feet and starts rewriting history. In actuality, four people were murdered at noted pedophile Roman Polanski’s house on August 8, 1969 by three followers of the “Manson family”, but Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood turns it around. This whole section really has nothing to do with the first part of the movie and seems to exist to give Quentin Tarantino to exercise some brutal punishment on hippies. Dalton and Booth just turn out to be tools for Tarantino to fake save Sharon Tate. This scene had no thematic connections to the first part, but it was good fun to see some quality action after nearly two hours of banter and dialogue. This section also had a Kurt Russell voice over to describe mundane details that would have been handy at times earlier. The night of the murders also felt more like a standard Tarantino movie. It was violent, but clever, using every character and a lot of coincidence to carry the scene. It was my favorite part of the movie and again, there was no focus on feet.