Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Review - Movie doesn't thrill

Quentin Tarantino as a writer gives his characters strong delineations and the multitude of performers do a bang on the job to stay memorable.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
U/A: Thriller, Comedy
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, Burt Reynolds, Margot Robbie
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Rating: 

The year was 1969. Sharon Marie Tate Polanski was 8 ½ months pregnant and on the cusp of a beautiful, successful career in Hollywood with husband Film Director Roman Polanski's support, when Manson cult followers struck. But Quentin Tarantino's ninth film ( the first without Weinsten as producer) isn't as much about her as it is about that period in Hollywood where the tinsel world appears to have lost its sparkle – embodied here, by a fictional once popular cinema and TV star, budding alcoholic Rick Dalton ( Leonardo DiCaprio) and his struggle to navigate the fast changing Hollywood landscape, alongside an ever loyal gofer buddy, Cliff Booth(Brad Pitt), his regular stunt double. Tarantino's film incorporates multiple subplots, true to that age and its milestones, in a bid to paint Hollywood history in an augmented 'Western' halo. This film is also the last film Luke Perry acted in before his unexpected demise.

Check out the trailer here:

The set-up is entirely retro, replete with junked out culture and vintage elements, while the likes of Bruce Lee (Mike Moh), Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), popular Italian Westerns and many more come in for some friendly ribbing.

Also Read: Leonardo DiCaprio jokes about his favourite dish with cast of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

My guess is that Tarantino's creative juices might have jumped on this inspired journey following the 2014 release of Sharon Tate: Recollection, the book written by Tate's sister, Debra Tate. The real life parallels notwithstanding, the strikingly constructed intertwining fictional and factual storylines in the film, intriguingly subsume in an altogether imagined construct. The exacting storyteller that he is, Tarantino weaves in his staple twin heavies- strong language and shockingly brutal action, within a grossly indulgent setting-the-mood frame-up that goes on and on, far beyond sufferance. Tarantino as writer gives his characters strong delineations and the multitude of performers do a bang on job to stay memorable. The period setting, design, costuming, camerawork and soundtrack lend enough weight for infallible conviction. Yet the filmed experience never does become a sum of all its parts. The severe lag in the narrative pacing and the overly indulgent runtime length are taxing enough to get you off what might have otherwise been a thrilling experience!

Also Read: Quentin Tarantino kept Once Upon a Time in Hollywood script locked to prevent leaks

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