Tarantino's fairy tale life reaches its climax in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'

Leonardo DiCaprio gets into character in 2019’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” (Sony Pictures/MovieStillsDB.com)

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"
Released July 26, 2019
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Where to Watch

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" feels like the movie Quentin Tarantino has been waiting his whole career … and life … to make. 

That may be a bold statement, but what isn't a hot take is that Tarantino is an obsessive film fanatic. His biography is so entwined with movies, and as a child of the 60s, Tarantino's lifetime is so explicitly connected to the evolution of film watching that connecting the dots here is like following Forrest Gump if he had a niche hobby. 

Tarantino moved to Los Angeles as a child in 1966, the exact center of the movie industry on the cusp of a significant artistic revolution. He was also located in one of the few places on earth that offered regular access to classic movies and international cinema of all types of quality. It created a passion for film that was so profound that as a young adult, he would work as an usher at an adult movie theater, clerked at a video rental store for years, and even took acting classes. Tarantino has wholly immersed himself in the industry for his entire life, at every level.

Eventually, Tarantino made his passion legit. His 1992 directorial debut, "Reservoir Dogs," was the kind of seismic, arrive-and-plant-your-flag-in-the-sand premiere from a young filmmaker that captured almost everybody's attention. Those who didn't notice him got the memo with his sophomore effort, 1994's "Pulp Fiction," which won the Palme d'Or award from the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for multiple major Academy Awards, with one win for Best Original Screenplay. As he would come to be known, QT had such a distinctive voice and tone that he influenced an entire sub-genre of movies in the 90s. It was clear that Tarantino became the kind of household name that would be forever synonymous with film.

It's a level of fame that helped Tarantino remain relevant as studios became increasingly reliant on franchises. The director pursued his passions in genres like crime, revenge, war, and western stories, but his approach and distinctive voice made his movies their own brand. The release of films like "Kill Bill," "Inglorious Basterds," and "Django Unchained" felt like events, and Tarantino was the franchise.

That's what made "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" the outlier in his filmography because the story doesn't fall into any of his usual genre work. Instead, it goes back to when he first discovered Hollywood as a child and the movies that captured his imagination and the talent that created them. And it's not about gangsters, cowboys, or soldiers, but the men and women who actually work in the Hollywood industry (and often played those roles).

"('Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' is) probably my most personal," Tarantino told Esquire in 2019. "I think of it like my memory piece. Alfonso (Cuarón) had ‘Roma’ and Mexico City, 1970. I had L. A. and 1969. This is me. This is the year that formed me. I was six years old then. This is my world. And this is my love letter to L. A."

The movie takes place on three specific days over seven months in 1969. Actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), aided by his longtime stuntman and now driver Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), struggles to remain relevant in his career as a television actor. His next-door neighbors are Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), who have rapidly rising careers in Hollywood. "Once Upon a Time" brings us into the working industry of filmmaking, where careers can rise and fall in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, there's a growing subculture growing on the periphery of show business, personified by men like Charles Manson, who threatens to upend our worldview.

After spending several decades highlighting the mystique of Hollywood heroes and anti-heroes, Tarantino flips the camera around to demystify these characters. As it turns out, they just spend most of their days sitting around, talking shit about other people in their industry, and worrying whether their next speaking role will be their last. 

This duality is contrasted by Rick and Sharon. Rick's caught a wave of imposter syndrome, where he's now putting over the lead actors of other television instead of being the star. He sees the industry-changing around him, as the classic beauty standards in the 50s and early 60s become passe and uncool. New filmmakers like Polanski are also challenging the preconceived notions of what makes a great movie and the power of an auteur director. His wife, Sharon, is on the upswing of her career, on top of a wave that's gradually building to the point where she can no longer see the bottom. Given Tarantino's experience working with breakout talents and his loyalty toward veteran actors, the story of Rick and Sharon in "Once Upon a Time" feels achingly real whether you've worked in Hollywood or not.

But that doesn't mean Tarantino is done making cool characters, as we see with Cliff. Tarantino gives Cliff a dark backstory (including killing his wife, elaborated on in the novelization Tarantino wrote for the movie). Still, Pitt's appearance and demeanor diffuse much of the problematic issues with Cliff. Out of everybody in the film, Cliff has little to look forward to as his dicey past and poor behavior have essentially blacklisted him from the industry. Yet, Pitt projects a zen perspective that vibes through the screen into the audience. As the world historically reconfigures around him, Cliff finds happiness through two functional relationships: His best friend, Rick, and Cliff's dog, Brandy.

The final element that makes "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" sing is Tarantino creates his most vibrant world and textured environment around these characters. Every location, every sound, every frame is purposeful to further draw us into the universe on screen. It creates mood and tone, or, as the kids say today, just vibes. There's a good stretch in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" where Cliff drives Rick home, hops back into his own car, and goes back to his trailer home located at the back of a drive-in where he makes dinner for his dog and himself. Outside of laying a few seeds for moments that sprout later in the movie, it's a lot of screen time devoted to something that doesn't move the story forward. But I can't take my eyes off the film because Tarantino uses the time of a famous location, music of the era, and the movie star charisma of Pitt to invite us to live in this moment. And let's face it: When we put aside our ADHD mentality aside, driving around Los Angeles in a convertible listening to classic rock with Brad Pitt is an enjoyable way to spend 10 minutes.

"Hollywood" is that it was released during a time when superheroes were dominating the marketplace ("Avengers: Endgame" dropped a few months earlier), and here was a movie directed by and starring three men who never appeared in any of them (for the sake of sanity, we're not going to count Pitt's one-second unadvertised cameo in a comic book movie). Only Robie had embraced that genre in her career, so for the most part, the selling point of "Hollywood" was based upon old-school marketing: A-list movie stars we show up to see just because they're in the film.

And lots of people did show up. "Hollywood" opened with $41 million for second place behind Disney's live-action "The Lion King" remake; pretty remarkable for an R-rated movie. It performed steadily over the next two months. It maintained its per-screen average for an extended period, finally closing its original run in Feb. 2020 for a total domestic gross of $142.5 million and $374.3 worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of Tarantino's career.

"There are few modern filmmakers whose movies reveal themselves more gradually - and satisfy their audiences more generously - than Quentin Tarantino," wrote Todd Gilchrist for Birth Movies Death. "The propulsive blast and feverish excitement of a first viewing shows only what happens in his stories, but it's the second and third (and so on) that uncovers why these invigorating sequences of events occur, and most importantly, what they're all really about. There's a unique shift from surprise to suspense, from visceral discovery to watching the accumulation - and evolution - of dramatic weight and momentum. And the meandering, reflective 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' feels like an encapsulation, and culmination, of this technique - a short fuse carefully and conspicuously laid out to explode at the absolute last minute, relieving our anticipation, rewarding our patience, and providing an emotional catharsis that reverberates long after the immediate shock of that powder keg payoff."

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is a thesis statement by Tarantino on his own life and career. In many ways, it's the movie where he finally connects all of his obsessions and themes into a cohesive experience. Now that he's reached the end of this fairy tale, what else does Tarantino have to say?

Next Week: "Guardians of the Galaxy"