Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Kurt Russell, Al Pacino, Timothy Olyphant, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Luke Perry, Sydney Sweeney, Zoë Bell, and Michael Madsen
Grade: A-

A majority of this movie consists of people lighting up cigarettes, looking cool, and driving around nice cars against a Los Angeles backdrop.

That’s not a bad thing though.

Summary

After we see a promo for TV western series Bounty Law, starring Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) as Jake Cahill, Allen Kincaid (Spencer Garrett) interviews Rick and his stunt double and best friend in Cliff Booth (Pitt).

Later, Rick and Cliff go on a drive. Interspliced into this opening credit sequence is actress Sharon Tate (Robbie) arriving in Los Angeles with her husband and director Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha).

It’s Saturday, February 8th, 1969, in Los Angeles, California. Dalton and Booth wait at a bar for Rick’s agent Marvin Schwarz (Pacino). Marvin asks about Cliff, and Rick says Cliff has been working with him on the last two seasons of Bounty Law. He tells Marvin that Cliff gave him a lift because his car is in the shop but in reality, Dalton’s license was taken away after so many drunk driving tickets. Cliff drives him everywhere now. Anyway, Marvin tells Rick he and his wife watched a double feature of two Dalton films, Tanner and The 14 Fists of McClusky. Tanner was a western he watched with his wife, and The 14 Fists of McClusky was a World War II film where Dalton brandishes an eye patch and uses a flamethrower on a group of Nazis in the film’s climax. In Marvin’s office today, he watched two episodes of Bounty Law. Then, some of the guys in archives sent over a kinescope of Rick doing a song and dance routine on some variety show. The two then discuss how Rick has been doing guest shots on episodic TV shows as the bad guy where he loses in the end. Marvin points out that this is a trick by the networks to get a new star popular because the audience sees their star beat “Jake Cahill” from Bounty Law instead of the character Rick plays. It ruins Rick’s star power and could ruin his career as a leading man. Marvin suggests to Rick that to save his career, he should start doing spaghetti westerns overseas in Italy, so he can be the star that wins these “fights”.

Rick doesn’t take this news well, as Marvin is essentially pointing out that Rick is becoming a fallen star.

After the meeting is over, Rick starts to weep to Cliff, who calms him down as they drive back to Rick’s house in Hollywood Hills. Meanwhile, we see a group of girls sing and do random stuff around town, led by the young Pussycat (Qualley). Jumping back to Rick and Cliff in the car, Cliff notes he hasn’t been able to get work as a full-time stuntman, so he doesn’t mind being Rick’s butler-esque friend. Because of this, he tries to explain to Rick that starring in spaghetti westerns doesn’t seem like the worst thing in the world. They stop at a crosswalk, and Cliff makes eye contact with Pussycat. They smile and acknowledge each other as her and her girls walk past. Rick and Cliff pull up to the house, and Rick thinks he screwed himself by trying to pursue a movie career. Just then, Sharon and Polanski get into their driveway. Since Rick lives right next door to them, the two see them, with Rick saying they moved in a month ago and that’s the first he’s seen of Polanski. Being inspired at potentially having a chance encounter with Polanski, Rick seems to have recovered. Because of this, Cliff leaves Rick to work on his lines for his spot on Lancer tomorrow. Cliff goes home to his trailer elsewhere and feeds his well-trained pit bull Brandy. As we see Rick go over his lines as he drinks, Sharon and Polanski go out to a party at the Playboy Mansion. There, we see how littered the place is with celebrities like Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis), Michelle Phillips (Rebecca Rittenhouse), and Jay Sebring (Hirsch).

While Sharon dances, McQueen tells another person at the party how Sharon broke off her engagement with Sebring and got married to Polanski after doing a film with him in the UK, and they moved to Los Angeles afterwards. He says the “three of them” are inseparable, mostly because Sebring thinks Polanski will fuck things up, and he’ll be there to take Sharon from him when he does.

The next day, Cliff drives Rick to the set of Lancer, and Rick asks him to fix his TV antenna while he’s at work. Cliff has no problem with it but asks Rick if he talked to the stunt gaffer to see if he’s working this week or not. Unfortunately, Rick tells him the guy who gaffs this show is best friends with Randy (Russell), the gaffer from The Green Hornet. Because of Cliff burning this bridge on the set of that show, there’s no point. Understanding, Cliff leaves and promises to pick Rick up at wrap. Rick goes to the makeup trailer, and he’s quickly interrupted by director Sam Wanamaker (Nicholas Hammond) who’s very excited to have him on set. He gets worried when Sam talks about how he wants the look of the character to be because it changes the clean-cut look he’s known for. He wonders how the audience will know it’s him, but Sam tells him he hopes they don’t. He doesn’t want the audience to see “Jake Cahill” because he’s much more than that. On the way back to Rick’s house, Cliff sees Pussycat again and turns down her request to hitchhike (only with gestures and no words).

As he works on the antenna, Cliff reminisces about The Green Hornet incident that got him blacklisted as a stuntman. In the flashback, he runs into stunt gaffer Randy outside of Rick’s trailer. Randy greets him but goes into Rick’s trailer to tell him he doesn’t have a job for Cliff. Plus, Randy doesn’t like him either. This is mostly because Cliff killed his wife. Randy works with his wife, and she doesn’t trust Cliff either. Rick says this is a lie, but a further flashback implies it heavily. After pleading with Randy and saying Cliff is a war hero, Randy relents and puts Cliff in wardrobe. On set with the crew, Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) talks about his admiration for boxers like Cassius Clay, Sonny Liston, and Joe Louis while boasting about his own abilities as a fighter. One guy asks who would win in a fight between him and Clay, and Lee tells everyone he’d make Clay a cripple. Cliff starts laughing, and it angers Lee. He challenges Cliff to a two-out-of-three round fight to see who can knock the other down first, with Cliff accepting. In the first round, Lee kicks him down. In the second round, he runs for another kick, but Cliff catches him and throws him into the car on set, making a major dent in the side of it. In the third round, they go back and forth until Randy’s wife Janet (Bell) stops it, screams at Cliff, and tells him to leave. Randy sees the mess and fires him. Jumping out of the flashback, Cliff simply says, “Fair enough”.

*There’s a lot of criticism people have for this scene, but I’ll admit the payoff of Cliff’s line was really funny.*

Meanwhile, Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) shows up at the Polanski residence to see Terry Melcher. Sebring is at the house with Sharon, and he tells Manson that Melcher doesn’t live there anymore (who wasn’t aware), so he leaves. Back on set, Rick is in full costume and has to wait for his facial hair applications to dry. To waste some time, he goes and reads a book next to an eight-year-old actress who is doing the same. She takes her craft very seriously as an actor and though her real name is Trudi Frazer (Butters), she only wants to be referred to by her character’s name of Marabella Lancer. When she asks Rick about the plot of his book, Rick starts to weep as he starts to see the allegories in what he’s reading to what his career is becoming as an actor. She tries her best to cheer him, and he calms down. Even so, he’s got work to do and will have to overcome some personal struggles before he gets back on track again.

The rest of the film goes on as we continue to follow Rick, Cliff, and Sharon throughout a short time span as they go through their lives in Hollywood. Eventually, their stories will intersect in a thunderous way.

My Thoughts:

Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature is a whirlwind of outrageous humor, incredible acting, and two well-detailed characters that bring the famed director’s ode to 1960s Hollywood to life. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a fairytale that only Tarantino could make happen, with his love for this era of film being showcased with an intricately researched screenplay from top to bottom. His passion can never be questioned regardless of what you think of the final product. With regards to this, all of the exposition, characters, and everything else are all part of the many highlights of this film. Stylistically, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is damn impressive. The attention to detail to make this movie a total recreation of 1969 California, from the landscapes to the people, to the clothing, to the advertisements, makes this immaculate looking production one of the most ambitious of the last decade. Without question, they deserved their Oscar for Best Production Design.

Hollywood has a history of giving praise to any movie about filmmaking, older time periods regarding the film industry, and the love affair we have with actors, actresses, and stardom. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood does a great job of exemplifying the freedom and coolness of the late 60s in Hollywood. You got the sunglasses, the cool people smoking, the good-looking celebrities, and the shiny Hollywood lifestyle everyone wanted to be a part of. It encapsulates the era perfectly, ringing true that this is Tarantino’s “love letter” of sorts to the time period. From all the cameos of people playing famous celebrities from that era, a portrait of the Hollywood lifestyle for the ultra-famous and the TV famous (Dalton), a detailed look at filming in progress and how the magic of performance art is made, and of course the “goddamn hippies”, as Rick Dalton would say. It’s very cool to see. The story just doesn’t match up to the effort it took to get all the little stuff right.

Like usual Quentin Tarantino directed films, the narrative structure is all over the place. A lot of times, he can pull it off because of how stylish his storytelling capabilities are, along with a well-thought-out plot. However, with this film, there’s very little actual story. It clings to the “day in the life” storytelling style a little too hard to the point when you wonder if something will actually happen. Sadly, the story doesn’t take shape until an hour into the picture, and no action worth of note happens until the last forty minutes. This film is structured in such a way that no writer/director could get away with other than Quentin Tarantino. Most of the movie is elaborate (and richly detailed) exposition. I understand Tarantino is clearly passionate about his two main characters (so much so that he’s coming out with a fictional book based off of the “films” Rick Dalton did), but it gets excessive as a majority of the movie’s screentime is explaining each character’s personal lives and backstories. This film has very little replay value for this reason alone because when you watch it again, you can see how much time is wasted to explain all these details that don’t affect the story at all. For instance, as cool as it was to see Rick Dalton in Steve McQueen’s place in The Great Escape, there’s no point in even wasting time to show it because according to Dalton himself, he had almost zero shot at getting the part. The infamous flash back sequence of Cliff Booth getting into a fight with Bruce Lee on the set of The Green Hornet was funny, but this is a scene that could’ve been explained in a sentence rather than taking up ten or so minutes of screentime. Once again, it didn’t change the actual outcome of the plot whatsoever.

Is it entertaining? Yes, but was it necessary, especially to go as long as it did? Not at all.

By the way, I’m a huge Bruce Lee fan, and I did not have a problem with the way he was portrayed. It was a humorous take on his persona that wasn’t meant to be taken as seriously as it was. I was astonished as to how much press coverage this scene in particular got when this movie is a fictional comedy where the Manson murders didn’t happen. On top of that, Lee did have a history of beating up stuntmen on the set of The Green Hornet. Gene LeBell, who worked on the fucking show, said it himself! Are you going to argue with someone who was actually there? Look, I love Bruce Lee as much as the next guy, but he wasn’t perfect. The problem shouldn’t have been with the parody of Lee, the problem should’ve been how unnecessary the scene was in general, along with a majority of this bloated production. Did we really need to sit through half an episode of Lancer to see Rick go through his workday? Was that much really needed to get the point across of his process as an actor? It was cool to see Dalton mess up takes and try to recover, but again, was it necessary? Not at all.

What was up with all of those closeups of women’s dirty ass feet? I know Sharon Tate used to walk around barefoot, but we didn’t need to be that accurate. Then again, you know Tarantino couldn’t help himself.

We’re onto you Quentin. You greasy bastard.

The best part about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was the characterization and the devoted screentime of Rick Dalton, Cliff Booth, and their friendship. It was ridiculously entertaining watching these two interact and hangout as they drive, smoke, drink, and watch television together. Despite Brad Pitt’s Cliff looking nothing like Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick, even though he’s Rick’s stuntman, it was just cool to see two of Hollywood’s biggest stars together in such a fun film like this.

In terms of personalities, they couldn’t be more different. Rick is on the verge of being a washed-up star. In the 50s, Bounty Law was a major show, and Dalton was on top of the world. However, his transition to film has not been sunshine and rainbows like he hoped. This is why his agent Marvin Schwarz suggests he accepts the “death sentence” of becoming a star of spaghetti westerns. This is enough for the already unconfident and constantly stammering Dalton to re-think everything, and his anxiety and alcoholism starts to boil over. Though he still gets steady work in guest spots on random episodic shows, the idea of being stuck in TV acting compared to film is seen at as a failure. It wouldn’t be to you or me or even Cliff, but to someone who was already the star of his own show, reaching the next step and being a major star in Hollywood pictures is the real dream. However, because of the recent failures of his last few movies, the potential to be nothing more is looming in the back of his mind, and it’s affecting his work and focus. He could still do television and get paid, but he still has those aspirations of stardom, as we see how he holds onto a chance conversation with Roman Polanski. He can’t take the fact that he may have missed the boat and hit his ceiling. The only person that can calm him down is his best friend Cliff, and that’s why he’s always stuck up for him.

Speaking of which, I loved Cliff Booth. Leaning heavily into his uncanny resemblance to Robert Redford, Brad Pitt plays the most loyal friend anyone has ever had. Though he’s Rick’s stuntman, he hasn’t been able to get nearly as much work with Rick because he may or may not have killed his wife, an odd detail added to the character that we never officially know if it’s true or not. Despite his lack of full-time stunt work, he survives and is content with being Rick’s unofficial assistant, essentially helping Rick with everything from fixing stuff around the house to driving him to work. He doesn’t mind doing it. He gets paid, but he also genuinely enjoys Rick’s company and vice versa. Rick really appreciates him too, as his anxiety-riddled rants about his career are constantly cooled down by Cliff’s words of encouragement, positive outlook, and authentic friendship. Together, they make one hell of a team, winning us all over. Very rarely do you get a film of this capacity with these two big of stars, where both leads are used in equally important roles to their fullest of capabilities. A lot of the time, one star would have to take a backseat to the other because of how the narrative is structured, but in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the rarity of equal importance is achieved. The script is centered around two A-List actors, and they’re given an equal amount of attention, lines, and moments. There was no upstaging at all either. They were both great.

Now, Pitt was very good in his role, but I have no idea why he was given so much more praise compared to DiCaprio. DiCaprio’s role as Rick Dalton was incredible, but the media completely overshadowed him in favor of Pitt. Are we that used to Leonardo DiCaprio’s astounding top tier consistency as a lead, no matter the film? It’s as if we expect his amazingness in each movie to the point where we stop giving him his flowers, despite him putting together yet another legendary performance! The Lancer scenes alone show us why DiCaprio got his sixth nomination for Best Actor. You can’t beat the emotion that DiCaprio has in every role he plays, and when he flips out in his trailer for forgetting his lines, I was howling with laughter. He was incredible! He was able to portray Rick Dalton at his highest of highs and lowest of lows while still trying to be professional at work, giving us an insight into the actor’s up and down confidence levels. The fact that I have to call a DiCaprio performance “underrated” is crazy to me. Well-rounded, hilarious, and intense, DiCaprio put together a phenomenal performance and a much more challenging one compared to Brad Pitt, who essentially played himself as the ultra-cool Cliff Booth. Yes, he was cool on a whole other level, but you can’t sit there and tell me he was better than Joe Pesci in The Irishman. Not one person I’ve talked to has given me a good enough example as to what was so impressive about Pitt’s performance.

Oh, he plays the cool guy that smokes and throws hands? Get the fuck out of here! I’ve never seen something like that! He should win an Oscar for it!

Did you catch the sarcasm?

Joe Pesci in The Irishman was absolutely fucking robbed of Best Supporting Actor, and you can’t convince me otherwise. Pitt didn’t have a bad performance. In fact, he was a major highlight of the film, but to tell me that it was award-worthy is RIDICULOUS. It’s even more ridiculous that Robert Pattinson wasn’t even nominated for The Lighthouse. This was a “give me” Oscar. It’s as clear as day.

I would argue DiCaprio should’ve won Best Actor, but Joaquin Phoenix had it in the bag for Joker.

For the record, I had DiCaprio as runner-up.

Side note, anytime Rick Dalton said something about the hippies, I laughed every single time. DiCaprio’s comedic timing and delivery were impeccable in this movie. He absolutely owned the role of Rick Dalton.

Margot Robbie, though well cast as Sharon Tate, did nothing of note other than set up the climax. She doesn’t interact with DiCaprio or Pitt at all onscreen (if you were wondering). Admittedly, it was heart-warming in the grand scheme of things to see her watch The Wrecking Crew to see herself on the big screen and to hear the audience react to her performance. It’s like the movie stops in time to reminds us of the innocence of Tate compared to her undeserved real-life fate. The reason I had an issue with it was how much promotion Robbie got before the release of the movie because Tate barely does anything important and isn’t in the film nearly as much as they advertised. They were acting like she was right up there with DiCaprio and Pitt in terms of importance when in reality, she’s just above Al Pacino and Kurt Russell. Margaret Qualley’s role as Pussycat was just as memorable, if not more.

One of the few times in this film where nothing happened but it worked was the scene at Spahn Ranch. The amount of suspense we feel in this eerie, ghost-like landscape in the Manson compound was incredible. It feels like you’re in a silent haunted house waiting for someone to pounce. It’s a feeling that is hard to replicate in a non-horror film, but Tarantino did an excellent job setting up the anticipation of the scene. Cliff Booth was such a badass here it was unbelievable. It’s like when you’re a little kid watching an action movie, and you gain a sense of bravery and confidence because of how tough the action hero walks into a scene with the villain, while knowing he’s outnumbered. The energy he radiates as a tough guy transfers to the audience because of Cliff’s unshaken confidence. They try to intimidate him, but he was ready to take on everyone and everything at a moment’s notice and makes it known.

Another tough part about all of this is the recreation of real historical events and changing it to suit the story, righting the wrongs of what happened in real life. This is something that Tarantino did with Inglourious Basterds that never sat well with me. Now, I’m starting to understand what he’s doing. Though it never happened, the balls-to-the-wall finale gives us the fairytale Hollywood ending that Sharon Tate and all of those other poor souls that were lost deserved. I still don’t agree with killing Hitler in Inglourious Basterds because this type of history-changing is different, but in the case of the ending we got here, it was an ode to her that was quite gratifying. I was annoyed by it in my first viewing, but I’m starting to like it more and more as I replay it in my head.

I’m torn. Though Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has very small replay value because of how overtly long and uneventful it is, watching it all the way through the first time is still absolutely magical.

On one hand, almost the entire film is just build-up with nothing major happening. Even while watching it, I remember asking myself when something was going to happen. It seems that Tarantino gets so obsessed with rich details in the characters and non-essential stuff that he forgets to give the characters something to do. On the other hand, it’s a work of art in so many other ways. It’s stylish, cool, interesting, funny, and its realism draws you in on all fronts. With a fantastic performance by DiCaprio, a very funny and entertaining Brad Pitt, some classic Tarantino humor and violence, an awesome supporting cast, and an ending for the ages that makes you want to stand up and cheer, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is one hell of an experience. It’s not Tarantino’s best, but if it’s one of his last major features that he makes, it’s a great one to hang his hat on.

Fun Fact: Burt Reynolds was originally going to play Bruce Dern’s role until he passed away. Jennifer Lawrence was interested in Dakota Fanning’s role but had to decline, and Samuel L. Jackson was considered for an undisclosed role at one point too. Tom Cruise was initially considered for the role of Cliff Booth. Producers also wanted Charlie Day (of all people) to play Charles Manson, but he declined, as he “didn’t want to see himself as Charles Manson”.

Well, that’s understandable.