ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: This movie is a nostalgic take on Hollywood of yesteryears. Despite the presence of stalwarts like Al Pacino , Leonardo Di Caprio and Brad Pitt this movie fails to make a mark on the audience. Leo Di Caprio is a has-been, an anti-hero who last starred in the TV drama Bounty Law and he fails to make it in the movies. His stuntman/body double Brad Pitt is too out of work and drives him around LA. There are never ending sequences of Brad Pitt behind the wheels and this comes as repetitive. This movie is set in 1969 before man landed on the moon and radio features prominently in many scenes. Rick Dalton (read:Leo Di Caprio) is advised by his manager to go to Rome and act in spaghetti westerns -a kind of demotion for a Hollywood actor. There is one scene where Rick constantly fails to mouth his dialogues and how difficult it must have been for a perfectionist like Leo to come up with incorrect lines. The eminent director Roman Polanksi comes to stay next door to Rick Dalton who is very excited to be a stone’s throw away from the famous director. Rick then goes to Rome to earn money and comes back to the US with an Italian wife. Somewhere in between Brad Pitt gets acquainted with the Manson girls who live in a trailer owned by an ailing old man, George. A fight breaks off prompting retaliation from the Manson girls later at Rick Dalton’s residence.Rick and Brad Pitt kill all the members of the Manson family in Aug 1969 in the climax. Brad goes off to the hospital in an ambulance while Rick goes for high tea with the Polankis. THE END. The movie, barring the climax, is boring. The girl playing the starlet Susan Tate is very expressive and endearing. The hippie culture is depicted in a derogatory fashion and hippies are looked down upon. All the actors smoke, booze and do psychotropic drugs like LSD. Teenagers hitchhike and have sex with unknown men. Tarantino has tried to depict a utopian kingdom of free sex, liquor and cigarettes. There are too many closeups of bare feet suggesting the director’s foot fetish. This movie celebrates the friendship between a fading hero and his stuntman and the sheer joy of watching Leo and Brad in the same frame is immense. Apart from that, the movie does not have much to offer. At 2 hrs 45 mins the movie tests our patience. Watch this movie if you are a tinseltown junkie. Don’t miss the ciggie ad bit by Leo at the end.
AninditaRoyMusings 