Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Is The Least "Tarantino" Tarantino Movie - And That's A Good Thing!

Quentin Tarantino is, without a doubt, one of my favorite directors of all-time.  He's also a master of subverting expectations.  Think of Death Proof and the mid-movie twist, or how Kill Bill 2 was essentially a completely different movie than the first volume.  He's always keeping his audience guessing, and I love that about him.

I understand that he's a love it or leave it personality to most people, but I'm fully on board the "love it" train.  My one gripe about his filmography is that most, if not all, of his films can be considered homages to certain genres and film stars.  From war movies to kung-fu to westerns, his most recent films have been essentially "Tarantino does _____."  For the longest time (since Jackie Brown, really), I've wanted Quentin Tarantino to do an original, character driven story.  After watching his latest film, the sun-soaked and trippy, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, I can share that my hopes have been rewarded.  Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is Tarantino's least flashy, more grounded film in years.  It's a film that catches you in a dream and made me want to watch it again immediately.

Once Upon A Time is essentially a few days in the life of Rick Dalton (a never funnier Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (a movie-stealing Brad Pitt), who are a washed-up actor and his forgotten stunt man.  The movie isn't really "about" anything, but rather a series of vignettes that culminate with a fateful night in the annals of Hollywood history.  It's a sublime piece of historical fiction, but a welcomed surprise for a movie buff wannabe like myself.

Your love for this film will largely boil down to your ability to sit through large chunks of "inside baseball" dialogue and scenes about the inner-workings of late 60's Hollywood.  Of course, Tarantino does his best with dialogue and scene building to entice even the most hardcore Tarantino cynics.  Both Dalton and Booth are some of the more three-dimensional leading characters that Tarantino's put together on film.  Dalton's insecurities and realizations about becoming washed-up seem to mimic Tarantino's own brush with film mortality (he's on the ninth of a planned 10 film career).  DiCaprio plays him with such gusto and with little self-awareness as to how foolish he is that it might just be my favorite performance of his illustrious career.  And Pitt has never been cooler on-screen (and that's saying a lot!).

A lot of fuss has been made about the lack of dialogue for Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate, but I think it's been unfounded.  Robbie has the unique inability to completely set a mood with a smile, and her performance here is no different.  The shadow of the Manson family hovers over this entire movie, but it doesn't detract from anything.  They're creepy by being minimally invasive, and I think Tate's innocence is the perfect antibody for them.

I'm not saying Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is a perfect film.  I'm not even quite sure where to rank it in Tarantino's filmography.  It's a film that requires repeated views to peel back all the layers.  It's definitely not for everyone and it's length (Tarantino's really struggled with length since the death of his longtime editor, Sally Menke) will surely turn people off.  In fact, I struggled with its pacing in the first act until I finally succumbed to its mood.  Just sit back and enjoy the ride, because it's a gorgeous one, and one that will only grow in stature as the years go by.  I'm not even ready to give it a star rating, but if someone offered me a ticket to go see it again today, I would jump on that offer in a minute.