‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ is Tarantino’s love letter to his title locale

Posted on August 2, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has made a career playing homage to the film legends that came before him. So, it was only a matter of time before he set his sights on the Golden Era of Hollywood, which is exactly what he does in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” whose title refers to Sergio Leone’s classics “Once Upon a Time in the West” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”

I’ve long been a fan of Tarantino’s films, although I was admittedly a little lukewarm on his most recent movie, “The Hateful Eight,” whose relentless bloodshed and slow delivery wore me down long before the story reached its violent conclusion.

Even so, I was hopeful going into “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” In my preview last week, I predicted the film would have a fair bit of violence and a lot of snazzy dialogue. Both turned out to be correct.

I feel like I’m going to use the word “but” a lot in this review, but my reaction to this movie is one filled with contradictions. Overall, I enjoyed it, but my feelings for it evolved while I was watching it and have continued to do so ever since I left the theater. What I can say unequivocally is that Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Revenant”) and Brad Pitt (“Allied”) are absolutely amazing in this movie.

Strangely enough, I think this might be one of Tarantino’s more accessible movies, but it will satisfy fewer people who go see it thanks to an incredibly slow first two acts. It’s also a movie that loses much of its tension — to the point of destroying its overall effectiveness — if you know how it ends, but I think it might actually work better the second time through, because knowing that it is all building up to something helps you sit back and enjoy the Tarantino’s talents in both storytelling and filmmaking. Confused yet? Don’t worry, I’m just getting started.

I also said in my preview last week that the trailers had given away almost nothing about the movie’s story, and that is absolutely true. I think the less you know going in, the better the experience will be, but again, it helps to know that it is all actually going somewhere.

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