APRIL 13, 2020 SCREENING: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019)
A tale of two film projects, both released in 2019. Both films made to mark the 50th anniversary of the tragic Tate–LaBianca murders committed by the infamous Manson “Family”. Both films were set in swinging 60s Hollywood and featured this event as the climax of their story, and both had a similar clever “hook” in that they took a real life event and gave it a FICTIONAL “twist” ending where the victims actually DEFEAT the Manson Family wackos, escape and report the incident to the police, and emerge victorious heroes (quite a different fate than what happened in reality, where they were brutally butchered). One film (The Haunting of Sharon Tate) got racked over the coals by professional critics for taking this approach, being harshly criticizing for “exploiting a real life tragedy” and turning it into a cheesy splatter-film style horror movie. It ended up getting nominated for a slew of Razzies – many of which it probably deserved. The other film (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) got applauded for doing this, receiving universal praise from critics, being named one of the ten best films of the year, and being showered with a slew of Oscar nominations, ultimately winning two of them.
What gives? Am I missing something here?
To be certain, aside from the having very similar premises and execution, the two movies otherwise have very different content. The Haunting of Sharon Tate is entirely from the point-of-view of Sharon Tate (played by Hilary Duff), the whole Manson Family incident is central to the entire film from start to finish, and the movie plays it as a very dark and creepy ominous horror film. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood has a totally different focus: the movie is some kind of schlocky parody of the 1960s Hollywood culture, the story revolves around the struggles of a fictional washed up Western TV “star” named “Rick Dalton” and his bromance with his stunt double/body guard “Cliff Booth”. The Manson Family incident is woven into Once Upon A Time In Hollywood almost as an afterthought or coincidence. In fact, you probably won’t even notice it building to that climax if you’re not playing close attention to what’s happened in between various scenes, and the climax of the film (with Dalton living next door to Sharon Tate), plays like a very forced attempt to wed fictional characters to real life events. Forrest Gump teaching Elvis how to dance feels more organic than this.
If Once Upon A Time in Hollywood weren’t directed by the legendary Tarantino himself, I’d find very little reason to recommend this. As it stands, the film has numerous Tarantino trademarks so I have no doubt his hardcore fans (spoiler: I like some of his movies, but I am NOT one of his “hardcore fans”) will enjoy this. Some Tarantino trademarks (I think the guy has some seriously disturbing fetish for showing off women’s bare feet) are annoying at this point, others are charming (Tarantino’s ability to mimic and lovingly recreate the exact style of low budget cheesy movies & TV shows from the 1960s is always brilliant and fun, even in an otherwise lousy movie like this). A year or two back, the solidly entertaining film Bad Times at the El Royale, was accused of being a second-rate knockoff of a superior Tarantino movie. I actually think the critics got it wrong there: the reverse is true. If you watch Bad Times first (and let’s be fair, it was released BEFORE this film), you’ll find that Once Upon A Time tries to do many of the same troupes, just far less effectively. A perfect example was the use of the Deep Purple’s “Hush” to establish mood and give the audience a feel for southern California, c. 1969. It results in an iconic scene (not gonna spoil it for you) with Chris Hemsworth as Billy Lee. But when played in Once Upon A Time? All it did was make me think “Hey, I miss the scene in Bad Times”! I bet Tarantino wishes he did that one!”)
What is frustrating about Once Upon A Time is that is another example of a bad movie that COULD have been a good one. It deserves more than a single star (and you will note at the end of the review that I accommodated that) because it has some fun scenes and moments from time to time. One of my favorite examples was Julia Butters as “Trudi Fraser”, an ultra-pretentious child actress (she refuses to use the term “actress” and goes into great detail why) who ends up being Rick Dalton’s co-star after his career starts to go downhill. Overall, what I really question is what was the point of it all? I read another review of this film which I think summarizes the biggest problem: I’ve never seen a Tarantino film before where I had to say “Why?” at the end and wonder what the film was trying to say or why this story mattered at all. It’s simply there, and with a nearly 3 hour running time, it’s a slough to get through.
Finally, no review of Once Upon A Time would be complete with a mention of one of the biggest problems I had with the film: the lead. Leonardo DiCaprio plays “Rick Dalton”, and it appears to be a textbook example of miscasting in my book. DiCaprio puts a ton of effort into the role, but no amount of dedication can disguise the fact that he simply doesn’t fit the part of an aging, 1950s era ultra-macho “toxic male” western TV show “star”, now frustrated at being washed up and trying to regain his past “fame” by appearing in gritty Italian action B-movies. (Ironically, DiCaprio’s co-star, Brad Pitt, who plays his best bud and “stunt double”, could have totally pulled off a “Rick Dalton” type character in the early 2000s). I am no fan of DiCaprio, on or off the screen, but I can still accept when DiCaprio pulls off a role that one would assume he couldn’t play, or when DiCaprio is PERFECTLY cast in a role and is NOT the reason why the film is underwhelming, such as his turn as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. Sadly, Once Upon A Time DOES have a lot of problems due to DiCaprio in the lead.
Bottom line: while Tarantino has never been my cup of tea, I’ve enjoyed many of his past films, admire his swaggering style and his tongue-in-cheek storytelling, and I expected better from him here. I haven’t seen numerous Tarantino movies, but from what I have seen, I would easily say that Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is his weakest film. Certainly, it’s the one I enjoyed the least (ironically, the paid critics rated Death Proof as one of his worst movies, and it’s probably my personal FAVORITE of his movies). If I had to choose this or The Haunting of Sharon Tate, I’d actually go with The Haunting of Sharon Tate. Neither film is a “good” movie, but The Haunting of Sharon Tate is certainly the more interesting and creative of the two, and actually WOULD have been a good movie on its own merits if it were entirely fictional and the Manson Family murders never happened in real life. I cannot say the same of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Sorry Quentin, better luck next time!
* ½ out of ****
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