Highs and lows in 'Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood'

Many of writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s best and worst impulses populate the sprawling “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood.” A quieter, more introspective movie than most of his prior filmography, “Hollywood” centers on two stellar lead performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as an aging TV actor and his stuntman/assistant at a cultural turning point in 1969.

The movie is also about the Manson Family cult, as well as actress Sharon Tate, played here by Margot Robbie, though the connection between the film’s fictional characters and its real-life figures doesn’t gel as fluidly as intended.

The film’s climax adds a bloody exclamation point on the filmmaker’s romanticized image of Old Hollywood, and the sequence is entertaining in its own right. Whether that ending tonally matches the first two hours of the film or even provides a satisfying conclusion to the movie’s three main character arcs is a much more complicated question. To this critic, it feels like a creative shortcut that fails to justify some of Tarantino’s worst impulses as a filmmaker.

The ending, as well as the film’s overall shagginess, will be the snags for most detractors of “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood.” The movie runs two hours and 40 minutes, with numerous scenes meandering longer than Tarantino’s prior efforts. He’s made long movies before, but few of them feel as loose as this one. It’s an intentional move, as Tarantino seems to love lingering on the ’60s Hollywood detail employed here. Some will be mesmerized, while others will feel impatient.

That’s not to say “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood” is absent some truly incredible sequences. Three especially stand out — one involves DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton struggling to deliver his lines while doing a guest spot on a TV Western. Once a series star himself, Dalton’s career has devolved into taking one-off villain roles on network shows, and his insecurities (and alcoholism) have finally begun to influence his work. In an incredible extended stretch, Dalton goes back to his trailer, breaks down and attempts to pump himself back up for the next scene. It’s some of DiCaprio’s most vulnerable and impressive work.

The second standout is a classic Tarantino potboiler as Pitt’s stuntman Cliff Booth picks up a young hitchhiker and drives her out to the former Spahn Movie Ranch, where members of the Mansion Family cult famously lived. Cliff, a proven tough guy (though for some questionable reasons), even manages to be spooked by the residents and how everyone reacts when he asks to speak with the elderly property owner. It’s a tense and expertly-staged sequence, anchored by Pitt giving the most commanding “movie star” performance of his career.

The third standout depicts Robbie’s Tate taking in a matinee to watch herself in “The Wrecking Crew” at a local theater. The footage shown is of Tate herself in the movie, not a re-enactment by Robbie, but Tarantino lingers on Robbie as she watches the movie and other theatergoers react warmly to the Tate performance.

If only “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood” had other scenes with Tate as a more fleshed-out character, as Tarantino instead chooses to linger on her with enchanted distance. She’s more a symbol of the time period, and that makes some sense when you consider the approach Tarantino takes in depicting the events of Aug. 8, 1969. Still, the way all of this connects to Rick and Cliff, and the way all the characters eventually intersect, never clicks together in a way that justifies some of Tarantino’s distracting fetishising.

The end result is somewhat empty, and perhaps “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood” plays better with subsequent rewatches once the viewer knows Tarantino’s full intentions from the start. Regardless of its thematic content, the movie is rich with period detail that mixes real life elements and people with some creative flourishes, including scenes from Rick’s made-up movies and TV performances.

Few directors have the skill to attempt something as ambitious as “Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood,” and perhaps because Tarantino has pulled off such complicated balancing acts before that it seems more disappointing when he occasionally missteps. It’s a movie worth seeing and debating, regardless of what side you ultimately land.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.