ANDREW COOPER/SONY PICTURES, 290 | Rolling Stone | August 2019
PETER TRAVERS
TARANTINO DOES PULP HOLLYWOOD
Set in 1969 Los Angeles, Tarantino’s all-star fantasia links the
movie biz and Manson-era violence with explosive resultsa second of what’s onscreen
in this new pulp classic. It’s
Tarantino’s ninth film, and he
claims it will be his next-to-
last. If so, he’s going out with
a bang. There is no movie
around right now that can
match this triumphant fable
for pure adrenaline rush.
As ever with Tarantino, the
action jumps off the screen
while setting up psycho-
logical provocations with a
reverb that won’t quit.
Tarantino gives Sharon
(Margot Robbie) a fictional
neighbor on Cielo Drive.
He’s Rick Dalton
(Leonardo DiCap-
rio), a star of TV
Westerns who’s
boozing away
what’s left ofhis flagging career. Rick’s
only friend is Cliff Booth
(Brad Pitt), his stunt double
and confidante who lives in
a trailer near the Van Nuys
Drive-In with a rust-colored
Rottweiler named Brandy.
Cliff is a Vietnam vet and has
been largely unemployable
since rumors started swirling
that he killed his wife and got
away with it.
It’s a ballsy Tarantino
move, casting two of thebiggest and most likable stars
in Hollywood as losers. But
DiCaprio (Django Unchained),
44, and Pitt (Inglourious
Basterds), 55, do him proud
working against type. They’re
a landmark screen team
whose explosively funny,
emotionally complex perfor-
mances stand with their very
best. Pitt is flat-out hilarious
when Clint gets a stunt job on
The Green Hornet and goads
an arrogant Bruce Lee (Mike
Moh), starring as Kato, into a
battle that ends badly for the
Fists of Fury legend.
DiCaprio also wins big
laughs trying to disguise
Rick’s woe when his
career hits the skids. A
high-powered agent (Al
Pacino, having a ball)
tells Rick he’s killing
his career doing guest
spots as villains in TV
shows. In a satisfy-Once Upon
a Time in...
Hollywood
STARRING
Leonardo DiCaprio
Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie
DIRECTED BY
Quentin Tarantino
$O
N A HOT August night
in 1969, four murder-
ous members of the
Charles Manson cult invaded
the Los Angeles home of
pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
Her husband, director Roman
Polanski, was in Europe on
business. What happened
next made headlines. You
might not remember every-
thing the way that Quentin
Tarantino remembers it in
Once Upon a Time in... Hol-
lywood. But you won’t forgetPitt and
DiCaprio
play it as it
lays in L.A.ing irony, Rick receives the
best reviews of his career
playing the heavy. Success
also follows when he heeds
his agent’s advice to star in
spaghetti Westerns abroad,
like Clint Eastwood and Burt
Reynolds. (A side note: Reyn-
olds himself was cast to play
George Spahn, the owner of
a movie ranch used by the
Manson cult as a hideout.
Bruce Dern took the role after
Reynolds’ death.)
All the actors, in roles
large and small, bring their A
games to the film. Two hours
and 40 minutes can feel long
for some, but I wouldn’t
change a frame. Tarantino
laughs at a lot of things in his
movies, especially his own
leap through genres in films
as diverse as Pulp Fiction,
Django Unchained and Kill
Bill. But not for a minute does
he fake his love for the Holly-
wood of the late Sixties. With
the help of master cinematog-
rapher Robert Richardson,
costume designer Arianne
Phillips, and editor Fred
Raskin, the period of backlot
Hollywood is painstakingly
recaptured. You can feel in
every shot Tarantino’s mad
love for movies in all their
disreputable dazzle and sub-
versive art.
This doesn’t mean that vi-
olence is absent. The Manson
era is just one reflection of
the rise of American blood-
lust. It’s one of the Manson
girls, Pussycat (Margaret
Qualley), who gets Cliff to give
her a ride to the Spahn ranch,
where helter-skelter reigns.
And when the cult gets closer
to home, no opportunity for
splatter is spared.
What is most shocking
about the film is its open
heart toward innocence,
Sharon in particular. Robbie
plays her like a point of light
undimmed by cynicism. She
enters a theater to watch an
audience watch her in a
Dean Martin spy caper and
stays to revel in their joy.
Rick feels nurtured in his art
by a fellow thespian, who is
blunt, honest, and only eight
years old. As played by the
mesmerizing Julia Butters,
the kid is another source
of incandescence in a film
where Tarantino gives hope
the last word.Robbie, as Tate,
walks hand in
hand with danger.+++++Classic | ++++Excellent | +++Good | ++Fair | +Poor