The ninth film from Quentin Tarantino feels quite different from his other films, for better or worse. There is still the stylised dialogue and black humour, but much less suspense or tension, with nothing much happening until the explosive final act.

Premise: In Hollywood in 1969, former TV-star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is struggling to find leading man roles, while his former stunt double and best friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) has been reduced to being Rick’s driver and handyman. Meanwhile, Rick’s neighbour Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) is seeing her acting career reach new heights.

Review:

I’m a big fan of Tarantino’s work, which is perhaps why I was slightly disappointed by Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, but it’s just not up there with his best work as far as I’m concerned. But if you manage your expectations, there is still a lot to enjoy in this film.

On the plus side, QT has assembled a fantastic cast. The film is carried by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, and it’s fun to spend time with their characters even when nothing much is happening (which is, unfortunately, most of the time). DiCaprio brings a tragic sense of comedic pathos to Rick Dalton, an actor who was the star of a western TV show in the late 50’s, but who has struggled to transition into leading man roles in films, and who is now reduced to playing villains-of-the-week in other stars’ TV shows. Struggling to come to terms with the fact that his best days are probably behind him, DiCaprio is magnetic whenever he’s onscreen, as Rick veers between self-denial, anger, resentment, self-pity and self-loathing. This being a Tarantino film, all the scenes are run through with a vein of black humour, so all Rick’s melodrama is played out largely for comedic purposes, especially in a particularly amusing scene between Rick and a precocious child actor.

“…essentially a series of amusing anecdotes & vignettes, rather than a plot per se…”

Whereas DiCaprio plays Rick as a character who can barely keep his emotions under control, Pitt’s portrayal of Cliff Booth is the opposite. As a war veteran turned stuntman, Cliff keeps a calm and level head in all situations, making him the perfect friend to keep Rick in check. As they both struggle for work, Rick is paying Cliff to be his driver and general odd-job man, but the truth is, they’re just life-long buddies that couldn’t imagine life without each other. Although Rick is the character with the more obvious problems, there’s a dark cloud hanging over Cliff relating to allegations that he killed his wife years ago, meaning that Rick and Cliff really do have a co-dependent relationship.

It’s a relief that DiCaprio and Pitt make Rick and Cliff characters that it’s fun to just hang out with … because for over 2 hours of the film’s 2 hour 40 minutes runtime, that’s pretty much all that happens. We follow Rick and Cliff over a three-day period that involves meetings with a casting agent, learning lines, filming a TV pilot, fixing an aerial, and other random episodes, in what is essentially a series of amusing anecdotes and vignettes rather than a plot per se.

“…Sharon Tate feels more like a concept than an actual three-dimensional character…”

The B-plot, meanwhile, focuses on Sharon Tate during the same time period, but for me, this thread was far less satisfying. Margot Robbie does a great job with what she’s given to work with, but Sharon Tate feels more like a concept than an actual three-dimensional character. For most of the early part of the film, the audience are just distant voyeurs watching her from afar as she goes about her life, seeing friends and dancing at parties. We’re told about her by other characters, rather than seeing anything of her character for ourselves. Later in the film, we get to see more of her personality when she goes to the cinema, but by the end of the film, it would still be hard to say you’ve learned anything about the character other than she’s “nice” and she seems to have a joyful lust for life. But the “Sharon Tate” character still only feels like a symbol rather than a real person.

The film also has more cameos than you could probably count - including ones from Al Pacino, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Lena Dunham and Kurt Russell - but none of them are particularly memorable. In fact, probably the most memorable character outside of the three main leads is “Pussycat”, a member of the Manson Family cult played by Margaret Qualley.

“…an enjoyable, if oddly disjointed, viewing experience…”

Speaking of the Manson Family, and the infamous Tate mass murder, there are obviously going to be some audience members who find any “frivolous” treatment of the horrendous crime unsettling and distasteful. That’s a perfectly valid viewpoint, and if you feel that way, I would suggest you avoid this film entirely. That said, Tarantino showed in Inglourious Basterds that his “historic” films are in fact set in alternative, “what if?” parallel realities, so you should certainly not treat Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood as being historically accurate (and like Inglourious Basterds, the final act goes out of its way to distance itself from the real, historical events).

All in all, there are plenty of amusing moments throughout the film, and the two main leads are great, but nothing much really happens until the very end. And maybe that’s the point – this is Tarantino’s love letter to 1960’s LA and the “golden age” of Hollywood, and maybe it should just be a snapshot of that world. But if that was the intention, why tag on the real-life Sharon Tate/Manson Family subplot to a film that could have just been a fictionalised account of the life of an aging actor? And although the final 20 minutes of the film is certainly gripping (and more in keeping with QT’s traditional over-the-top style), it’s not really informed by anything that happened in the preceding 2 hours and 20 minutes of the film. The end result is an enjoyable, if oddly disjointed, viewing experience.