3+1 Short Paragraphs: Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood

2019, Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs) -- download

During The Pause, I hope to be watching more movies than I usually do, given that I will be shaving the commute off my day, and while I don't go out very often, as it is, I will be going out even less. So, more time to watch schtuff  I feel I should be watching? No? Time will be wasted? Of course it will, but at the very least, I can dig into cleaning out the every aging back-list for this blog. Or, at some point, all those entries will have to be tossed into an I Saw!! But, for now, let's see which ones I can get to and which new ones I will actually sit down for.

So, my only (really? REALLY?) Oscar contender -- OUaTiH. Tarantino used to be That Director that guys like me, guys that claimed to be Movie Buffs, gravitated towards. He typified the Indie Director, set the tone for Better Action Movies and had utterly killer dialogue. He was also a big movie fan, and that seeped into every single movie he made. As the years went by, and I lessened in my dedication to this thing and I didn't rush to his movies nor had a strong opinion about most. But this one, I had a sense I would really like, as most people were describing it as long (2.5+ hours) and drawn out. Usually which bores others, I get enthralled in. And I was right, just about everything that most people didn't enjoy about this movie, primarily Brad Pitt driving around Hollywood, was exactly what I loved. But as a whole, I am not entirely sure I loved the movie. I hated the ending.

Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception) is an aging, almost entirely washed up action TV star,  remembered mostly for his long running TV show Bounty Law. It is 1969, the end of another era where Rick reigned. He is challenged with finding new, meaningful work, but he still has his best friend and stunt man Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt, 12 Monkeys) on the payroll, to drive him around and basically play valet & confident. In the world around them, Sharon Tate is a rising star and the Manson Family have moved onto the Spahn Ranch. Tate & Roman Polanski have moved into the house up the lane from Rick. Worlds will collide.

So, I was not kidding that most of this movie is Cliff driving around. Sometimes he is driving Rick around, sometimes he is just killing time until he has to drive Rick around again. Cliff doesn't really have a life if Rick isn't working, or if Rick hasn't convinced people to let Cliff on the project. While Rick moans and groans in his fancy house below Polanski's, Cliff lives in a crappy trailer. But he doesn't seem bitter, maybe just satisfied to live In Hollywood for as long as he can. I loved the retrospective on an era of Hollywood, maybe not one of most classically famous but one that had quite the rep, especially when the Mason Family got mixed up in it. Obviously this last thing pissed Tarantino off to no end, as he performed another Rewriting of History, as he did in Inglourious Basterds and ... well, I won't spoil it. If you haven't seen it, you really have to. Its gory, over the top and oh so Tarantino.