Review: 'Once Upon A Time in Hollywood' is a fairy tale only Quentin Tarantino could tell
Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” fulfills the promise of its title as a throwback fairy tale with two fictional showbiz buddies that just so happens to coincide with one of the most infamous killing sprees of the 20th century.
The iconoclastic writer/director’s stamp is all over his ninth film (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters nationwide Friday), Tarantino's signature style and humor melding with violence, a little melancholy and thought-provoking character drama. His vision of 1969 Hollywood feels authentic and alive, with a lot of that electricity running through leads Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, plus an inspired, understated performance by Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate.
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Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) is a famous 1950s TV cowboy and fleeting movie star whose career, by the time “Hollywood” takes place, consists mainly of guest appearances as the bad guy on any show that’ll take him. An insecure mess, Rick has a saving grace – in more ways than one – in stunt double/confidante/driver/handyman Cliff Booth (Pitt).
Cliff is a weathered, carefree dude who lives on the outskirts of town with his pit bull Brandy, though he spends a lot of time at his best pal’s snazzy Hollywood Hills estate. Rick’s next-door neighbor is Sharon, whose celebrity is rising as his is teetering downward, and she races in sports cars with her director husband Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) and parties with the Mamas and the Papas, flitting through the good life.
Unlike with many Tarantino's films, the director leisurely sets up his characters and fills the screen with “Mannix” episodes, Paul Revere & the Raiders tunes and obscure pieces of pop culture of the time. With an obsessive sense of detail, the result is an L.A. where fiction and reality blur together to form a magnificent locale only Tarantino could concoct.
The plot full-on moseys for a good two-thirds of the film, as Rick is on the cusp of a nuclear meltdown while filming a Western TV pilot that's key to prolonging what's left of his career, Sharon watches her new film “The Wrecking Crew” (with footage of the real Tate) with an audience and feeds off their energy, and Cliff has a strange episode when he picks up hitchhiking Pussycat (Margaret Qualley), part of the oddball hippie family of Charles Manson (Damon Herriman).
Tate, Manson and the family’s stories ultimately do sync up with Rick and Cliff’s, and fiery mayhem ensues in a third act that fully embraces being a Tarantino film. The differences are so striking between that and the exploratory meandering in the first part that they almost feel like two different movies, though at least the main characters’ arcs all feel earned by the end.
“Hollywood” is chock-full of big-name cameos. Among them, Al Pacino shows up as an agent trying to convince Rick to make Italian Westerns, and Kurt Russell as the narrator matches the same grizzled machismo of the movie’s main dudes.
Like Russell, both DiCaprio and Pitt are part of Tarantino’s company of regulars, and DiCaprio is especially fantastic as a fading star hanging on for dear life – this and “The Revenant” maintain his current run of career-defining efforts. Similarly, Pitt is able to add quite a few layers to steely and cool Cliff, who’s much more of an enigma than he seems.
Robbie’s Sharon is definitely a supporting role but also the film's angelic spirit, a sunny soul dealing with her own issues who’s tied inextricably to surrounding figures. Her real-life fate hangs over the film like a specter and offers an interesting built-in tension Tarantino uses to fuel an entertaining yet wanting entry in his infamous oeuvre.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Once Upon A Time in Hollywood': Only Tarantino could tell this tale
