Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Al Pacino, Nicholas Hammond, Samantha Robinson, Rafal Zawierucha, Lorenza Izzo, Costa Ronin, Damon Herriman, Lena Dunham, Madisen Beaty, Mikey Madison, James Landrey Hebert, Maya Hawke, Victoria Pedretti, Sydney Sweeney, Harley Quinn Smith, Dallas Jay Hunter, Kansas Bowling, Parker Love Bowling, Cassidy Hice, Ruby Rose Skotchdopole, Danielle Harris, Josephine Valentina Clark, Scoot McNairy, Dreama Walker, Rachel Redleaf. Rebecca Rittenhouse, Rumer Willis.
The dream of Hollywood for some was always a poison chalice, a millstone round the neck of those who could not see past its painted on face of glitz and glamour, who only witnessed the pain when it finally chewed the very being out of their bones; for those in front of the camera the illusion was all too compelling, too addictive, and even now it finds its way to destroy in its attempt to entertain.
The factory of fiction, the great and wonderful diversion for all who love films, and if you can stop yourself from looking too deeply into its Medusa-like eyes, it can be the light relief to which we all need, the escapism for the soul for a couple of hours. It is when we stare too deeply beneath the surface that we see the riddled maze of the beautiful as nothing more than artifice, the delusion of art.
This is the masterstroke of Quentin Tarantino’s epic and supposedly final film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, an absolute tour de force of imagination wrapped up in the wake of what has been described as the moment when Hollywood lost its innocence.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is a love letter to the romance of Hollywood but it is also a timely reminder that nothing in tinsel town has been untouched by rumour, speculation and the stench of corruption. The beauty of false living may be appealing but it also breeds an undercurrent of regret, fear, and sorrow, and presented like a glamourous present tied up with a silk bow, it also carries the spectre of jealousy, of back-stabbing and possible evil; no more so than the lead up to what should be seen as one of the most atrocious acts, the senseless murder of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and their friends by those caught in the sheer evil magnetism of Charles Manson.
The death of the Golden age of cinema, it is said, can be traced to that moment, from that point on a grittier, more shrouded in the real cloud fell upon the Hollywood hills, and Quentin Tarantino’s insight brings it majestically to life, whilst all the time playing with the audience’s perception of what is actually real, what is based in truth, and what feeds the addiction of the false premise.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is not just a good film, it is searing jab in the eye to the exploitative measures to be found in the business, and in life itself, the way we treat idols as if they are more than just human beings who happen to speak something beautiful into our hearts, the way recognition is sought by those who see crime as way to immortality.
With superb performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as Rick Dalton and his stunt double Cliff Booth, Margot Robbie who captures the fairy-tale like humanity behind Sharon Tate, Dakota Fanning and Nicholas Hammond as Sam Wannamaker, the film fan will be placed directly into the storm of chaotic beauty to which the piece exerts its power. If Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is Tarantino’s last film, then it should be seen as a fitting end to a great career, one that was always going to be written.
Ian D. Hall