Quentin Tarantino is back with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, his ninth feature film, which of course features a huge ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, and countless others.
The film takes place over three days in 1960s Los Angeles, and is about how a TV actor and his stuntman are struggling hard to stay relevant, and how other film stars and the people around them also navigate the world of the film industry. And of course we also have Charles Manson and his cult as a kind of backdrop.
The cast features a host of talent like the names above plus many more including some Tarantino regulars. All try to make the best of what they're given but it doesn't all work as well as it should. DiCaprio is good in his role, but fails to make much impact. Robbie unfortunately suffers a similar fate, despite playing a person who is crucial to the Charles Manson story. The well-recognised talents of Al Pacino are wasted and in the few scenes he's in, he feels reduced to nothing more than a presence. Brad Pitt as the stunt double was the only performance in the film I could call believable. He brought likeability and a good sense of humour to his role, and managed to somewhat save DiCaprio's performance by a small amount by demonstrating a believable chemistry with him.
This is of course written by Tarantino and one would anticipate that it's the kind of film he should have no problem with. He can pay tribute to old cinema, he can have moments where we see films within a film based on the exploitation genre. And of course he can have all the graphic violence and heavy profanity he wants.
But I take no pleasure in saying that mainly due to the writing, this feels less like a Tarantino film and more like a 1960s period drama with a style that strongly tries to resemble Tarantino. One of the script's faults is that it's full of scenes with very little to say that's interesting, scenes that go on for far too long that need to either be shortened or have worthwhile dialogue in them. I was just left waiting for something that was going to grab my attention and invest me in the plot, and for a long while, there was nothing that kept my interest.
Another failure of the script is that the characters are not that interesting or likeable. Only one character meets those criteria and I think it's fairly easy to see why. Also with Manson there were a whole range of possibilities that were never explored, such as what happened with Steve McQueen on the night of the killings? I think someone like Tarantino really could have had fun with this. Then there's Manson himself, who shows up once and we never really see him again. And it's not even until near the end of the film, during an encounter with the Manson family, that the film finally begins to look like a Tarantino film. Were those final moments enjoyable? Yes. Will it help the experience it you were bored by the rest of the film? Probably not.
Like many of Tarantino's films, this one has a very retro soundtrack, which I feel is intended to make the 1960s setting all the more credible. Here we have musicians like Aretha Franklin, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones and The Mamas and The Papas. A well-chosen soundtrack with some very well-liked songs. But I suspect that Tarantino knew about last year's film Bad Times at the El Royale. Not just for the fact that it was also set in the 1960s and had a more charismatic Manson rip-off played by Chris Hemsworth. But the fact that the same song plays in both films when cult-related things start to happen in the film's final minutes. I know it's a small detail, but when you notice that similarity as quickly as I did, it's hard not to raise an eyebrow. There is also another song that is played in both this film and El Royale, but the scences in which they are played are slightly different, so I will be merciful and overlook it.
I do respect Tarantino for trying something that feels so far out of his comfort zone, and his passion for the project is clear. But here we have wasted performances by hugely talented actors where only one really stands out, overlong scenes filled with uninteresting characters and equally boring dialogue. Great potential wasted throughout. And a soundtrack which, while impressive, does have one part that does seem a bit recycled from another film.
And with that, I give Once Upon A Time In Hollywood...
C
Thank you for reading.
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