Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019) Review
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood follows aging actor Rick Dalton and his double Cliff Booth as they make their way through Hollywood in the late 60s, leading to a chance encounter with the Manson family that would change history forever.
Let’s start with a couple things. As long as this page is alive, and ran by me, Tarantino will always get some love. This is his magnum opus. The movie he’s been wanting to make his entire career. And boy is it amazing! Set in Hollywood in the late 60s, this film is beautiful and as an aspiring filmmaker, makes me nearly cry. From the faithful recreations of 1960s Hollywood, to the fun, original story, to the big fuck you to the recently deceased Charles Manson, it has everything I want. One of the most true aspects I noticed though, was the depiction of hippies as being freeloading, trashy, and lazy druggies. They have been glorified in the years since, but at the time many people disliked them. I also love the addition of Rick and Cliff and everything that goes into their presence bringing about a fictionalized universe where films, events, and relationships happen different because of them.
The acting by Dicaprio is, as always, top notch. He was very believable as the aging TV western star. But it’s honestly Brad Pitt who stands out the most in this. He kills it and its a great feeling watching him beat the living shit out of the Manson family and changing history for the side of Sharon Tate and her friends.
The buildup to that is done well too, showing Pitt as nothing short of a badass, going toe-to-toe with Bruce Lee, beating the snot out of a Manson member, and even having a fun little rumor about him having killed his wife.
The cinematography is fantastic, along with the superb writing by Quentin Tarantino, who, fun fact, originally was writing OUATIH to be a book. Like all of Tarantino’s films, this is a classic and you already know I went ahead and bought it. This will definitely be one of those movies that I can just pop in and watch a thousand times, happily. Enough cannot be said about how fantastic the recreation of LA is, with the attention to detail astonishing. And while staying relatively nonviolent, the climax of the film adds that signature flair, being a bloody, intense mess that brings this fictional story of what would happen if Sharon Tate didn't die full circle, possibly averting the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Also, one more thing, it’s being reported that Tarantino will be writing and directing a five-episode Bounty Law series. Would love to see Rick and Cliff return for the show!
10/10
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