Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood,
directed by Quentin Tarantino
(R, 2 hours, 41 minutes)
There are plenty of moviegoers who aren't fans of Quentin Tarantino. This might be the time to suspend that opinion and give the director another chance; it's not the film many expect it to be.
Set in a seven-month period of 1969 in Southern California, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood concerns actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a former star on a big TV western, and his stuntman and pal Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Those careers are disintegrating, a situation that Rick rages against and hell-raiser Cliff handles with zesty indifference to how his behavior affects others.
The two of them, with too much time on their hands and a propensity to drink too much, head out every night to argue with fellow bar patrons while Rick complains bitterly about the direction life is taking him.
Not much else happens except that Rick's neighbors include up-and-coming actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and her husband, director Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), whose eventual involvement with Charles Manson's cult family of hippie dropouts is an ever-increasing plot point.
Along with culture clashes, there are lots of period pop-culture references, muscle-car appearances, way too much smoking and booze, cameos by big-face stars, and long, witty exchanges of dialogue that don't exactly fit the narrative but add mightily to the film's entertainment level.
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MovieStyle on 12/13/2019