Once Upon A Crime In Hollywood

All political correctness controversies that Tarantino’s new movie unsurprisingly sparked aside, I think it is a very interesting piece of movie-making and his best work in the past decade. Of course one could rightfully ask whether a movie can even be unpolitical in 2019 (if ever) and all these questions need to be asked but I think this is not the right place to do it. So please allow me to focus on the movie itself as much as possible without its potential socio-political implications. Since watching it almost two weeks ago, every day I think about the film, I appreciate it more. Of course Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is not immaculately perfect and has some flaws. Especially in the beginning, some stretches feel too long for my taste. Even though it shows off the meticulously crafted set-pieces, watching Brad Pitt drive through the city for a total of about ten minutes, honestly feels kind of pointless for example. Nonetheless, I want to see it again as soon as possible.

Oh, before I forget: SPOILERS AHEAD from here. 

I guess Tarantino expects the audience to know about the Manson murders and the trailers suggested that they would be the main plot point of the story. Throughout the whole movie, Tarantino keeps the viewers guessing and wondering how he will stage the event. The violence in his movies tends to drift into comedy what would make it contradictory to the gruesome horrors of the real murders. But that is neither really the main storyline of the movie nor its main point. It’s rather a form of revenge as part of Tarantino’s vendetta against the Manson Family. Charles Manson maybe has a total screentime of about two minutes and his “children” are taken care of with dogs biting crotches and shattered skulls on coffee tables. All in all, a big flambéed “fuck you” from Tarantino to Manson served in a tin can to the face.

The movie is also a tribute to Sharon Tate who is portrayed as a virtually perfect human being by an almost hypnotizing Margot Robbie. Tarantino rewrites history and this whole fairytale just to save her. Even though she has very little dialogue she always comes across as kind, cheerful, and warm-hearted. He deals with his grief by allowing himself to dream about a scenario in which this talented young actress did not have to go so savagely and so early. Showing the untouched original footage from The Wrecking Crew instead of animating Margot Robbie into the film like retouching Leo into The Great Escape for example also was a very honoring nod.

Oh and then there is the actual plot of two classical Hollywood careers at different points of their trajectories which serves as a frame for all of the above as well as Tarantino’s movie-making playground for messing with the viewer’s expectations. He constantly drops clues and red herrings which ultimately lead to nothing. For example when Steve McQueen is explaining the relationships of Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate and her ex-boyfriend at some Hollywood party leading you to believe there will be a conflict coming up between them. But then it just does not come up again at all. Tarantino is breaking with trained plot mechanisms to create a unique movie. When it comes to storytelling Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is quite bold and demands from the viewers to let go of their preconceptions of what a movie has to be like in 2019.

Besides all the meta-levels and unusual storytelling, the movie has even more to offer in my opinion. I think it is setting new standards for what “production value” means for such a big-budget movie with as little CGI as possible. Flawless camera work and those real sets with an admirable love for details perfectly transport the atmosphere of Hollywood in the late 60s and provoke a nostalgia for that time - which feels kind of weird when you were born in the 90s. There also are a handful of memorable scenes in which the characteristic “Tarantino magic” manifests. Of course, Bruce Lee’s confrontation with Cliff has to be mentioned here as well as Rick fucking up his scene or them both doing Beavis & Butthead style voice commentary together over one of Rick Dalton’s TV appearances. Another highlight was the brilliant Spahn’s ranch sequence which is essentially a short Hitchcock movie in itself.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt lay down captivating prime performances as two of the biggest movie stars of our time and manage to shine through their acting and not solely because of their stardom. Let’s see who gets nominated for which Oscar category - best actor or best supporting actor? Portraying an actor seems to always be a difficult task and Leonardo DiCaprio impressively pulls off a Rick Dalton who seems like a disastrous failure in front of the camera in one scene before totally nailing his lines a few moments later and both feeling like the same character. Still, I have to give a slight advantage to Brad Pitt because I admittedly did not think he was capable of the subtleness in his performance of Cliff Booth’s calmness and apathy.

To sum it up, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is one of the most unique and memorable movies in recent years. Despite its imperfections, it has the potential to be one of those films you fondly look back to in a few years and attribute “classic status” to it after having seen it 28 times.

Thumbnail image: Film still
Source: Kirkgate Arts