Once upon a time in…Hollywood (2019)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie

A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.

I have mixed feelings about ‘Once upon a time in…Hollywood’. Had the film been (much) shorter, I might have enjoyed it more. With a runtime of almost 3 hours, I ultimately became a bit bored with some scenes being way too long. A lot of screen time was also made up of movie clips, or with the actors shooting a movie, which I feel could have been shorter.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as actor Rick Dalton, who fears his career is coming to an end. He confides in his stunt double and friend, Cliff (Brad Pitt), who manages to motivate him. Cliff is also Rick’s driver. The film is set in 1969 and we get an interesting glimpse of the film industry as it was back then. The film cleverly incorporates actual characters and events into an otherwise fictional story.

‘Once upon a time in…Hollywood’ is well edited and well filmed. At times the photography makes you feel part of the film, instead of just watching it. There are way too many characters just coming and going, and there’s plenty of foul language for the sake of comic relief. (Well, it wasn’t funny.) There was also an awful lot of smoking going on here, so this is definitely for a more mature audience.

I really enjoyed the film in the beginning, but as the movie developed – at a very slow pace – I started wondering what the film was actually all about. I kept asking myself “how long till the end?” During the final act, the film was suddenly being narrated, and I couldn’t tell who the narrator was, or why it was suddenly being narrated. The final act is wild!! I didn’t see this coming.

The film then ends on a disturbing note which would lead to the Tate Murders (not shown in the film). For those familiar with Sharon Tate’s fate, the ending will send chills down your spine.

‘Once upon a time in…Hollywood’ was a critical and commercial success. The film earned $374.5 million on a $90 million budget. It received an incredible 523 award nominations, winning 143 including 2 Oscars.

Would I watch it again? No. (If it was shorter, I would have).