Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood (2019)

The dialogue in Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino’s blackly comic reimagining of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, and their Hollywood backdrop, may not fire with the same ballistic precision as Pulp Fiction (1994), or Reservoir Dogs (1992), but he plays to some of his other strengths, including sure command of montage, deceptively attractive visual sense, and deep appreciation of popular culture at its trashiest.

Sharon Tate was an amazingly beautiful and femininely attractive actress, and the willowy Margot Robbie, playing her here, while striking looking and extremely watchable, is less so. There is no mistaking one for the other. That Tarantino intercuts between them — Tate in a scene with Nancy Kwan from The Wrecking Crew (1968), and Robbie as Tate in a Hollywood movie theater, watching herself—is one of many arch postmodern games he plays with the audience.

Leonardo DiCaprio displays much greater range than I’ve previously noticed, and Brad Pitt’s easy charm, and deceptively honed technique, is this time coupled with demonstrations that he properly knows how to punch — unlike Al Pacino, who, while still commanding considerable screen presence, seems more like Kevin Spacey doing an Al Pacino impression on the Late Late Show. Other key elements include a chilling, plausible portrayal of Squeaky Fromme by Dakota Fanning, Timothy Olyphant in a turn apparently inspired by his role in Justified, and a funny, if insulting, and objectively ridiculous (in terms of his effectiveness as a fighter), depiction of Bruce Lee — as well as an astonishing performance from 10-year-old actress Julia Butters.

On the downside, Tarantino regular Michael Madsen reiterates his unvarying menacing schtick, all slow-drawl and roughhewn eyebrow furrowing; Kurt Russell contributes a superfluous revision of his Stuntman Mike turn in Death Proof (2007); and Tarantino’s female characters again speak in implausibly macho male idioms.

While his tongue remains firmly in his cheek throughout, the climactic violence never manages to set up the moments of genuine hilarity that are a Tarantino hallmark, and which count among his original contributions to cinema — but perhaps that’s just as well, given that the reality was five terrible, senseless murders, committed by a band of psychopaths some of whom are still alive. Members of the Manson Family were not really savaged by a righteous American Pit Bull Terrier, but it is nice to imagine that they were.

Along with Martin Scorsese, Tarantino has kept Hollywood alive as a going concern, artistically speaking, for nearly three decades, not quite alone, but with remarkably little support. Once Upon a Time …in Hollywood, as a piece of cinema, ranks (in my opinion) below Reservoir Dogs, but above Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) — and is, in any case, a devastatingly entertaining and gripping experience, and long-awaited return to form that may, perhaps, engender sufficient demand for more so as to postpone his self-announced future retirement from filmmaking.