Anyone who has heard me talk about Tarantino in the past will know that I am not the biggest fan. Don’t get me wrong, I admire what he does. I just feel that often with Tarantino, his work can come across as overly self-indulgent and self-inflated. His obsession with feet doesn’t help either. While Once Upon a Time… definitely fits that description, it is also a fantastic film that never quite goes where you think it will.

As most people will know at this stage, the story concerns actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) whose career has seen better days and his best friend/stuntman/gofer Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). The third lead here is Margot Robbie as actress (and Rick’s next door neighbour) Sharon Tate who unknowingly has a sinister cult checking out her house… Tarantino has tremendous fun in filling out the characters’ backstories and uses much of the run-time to follow their daily lives. Thankfully, the calibre of the cast makes that prospect never less than exciting.

As you would expect, Pitt is as rugged and charismatic as his role needs him to be but it is DiCaprio’s sheer vulnerability as Rick that will stay with you. Unfortunately, as good as Robbie is, she gets very little to do other than to look free-spirited and carefree. The performances across the board are so good and so committed that you barely notice the lack of a plot. Instead, it is fun enough to just watch these characters hang out with one another.

This movie’s weak point is also arguably its strongest in that Once Upon a Time… takes its time getting to where it wants to go. This is most noticeable when after nearly two hours of slow-paced storytelling, a narrator jumps in to speed up proceedings for the final forty minutes or so. However, to cut the first two hours would be to take away the sheer feeling of 1969 Hollywood that Tarantino has fantastically recreated. It is that sense of time and place that really makes the film stand out.

The usual Tarantino tropes are present in abundance (including many shots of bare feet) but for a change, it feels like he is making a point. After a career of making violent movies, this is a movie that is actually about violence and its relationship to Hollywood. This is ultimately what makes Once Upon a Time… worth seeing and it feels like the director has matured at this stage in his career. Just less bare feet next time please?

Disclaimer Notice: Any thoughts and opinions expressed here are solely my own. Any images (copyrighted or otherwise) have been used according to Creative Commons and if needed, have been referenced to the best of my knowledge.

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