Movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

crafty_bernardo

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Probably the worst film I've seen at the cinema in a while. Technically not a bad movie, I enjoyed the characters Rick & Cliff and several other elements, but overall I just found the movie pointless.
 
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It’s a nice film with the climax being the only exceptional and truly Tarantino-esque thing about it.

I take that back. The gratuitous feet shots are incredibly Tarantino-esque.
 
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Watched it on the first weekend, and my estimation of the film has grown since then, and that's mostly because of Margot's performance and the way QT handled Tate. It's probably his most thoughtful film to date, despite there still being the usual QT boorishness of it all.

It does drag and is too long for it to be considered a 'masterpiece' or even just his one of his best, but think there's a lot under the surface that opens the film up completely once you unpack it.
 
Not sure if we need spoiler tags here but stop reading if you're avoiding them

Once you accept that the movie is both a homage to the Golden era of Hollywood (mostly the first half) and a fairytale/alternate history (mostly the second half) it becomes a lot more palatable. If you go in expecting the standard QT fare you'll be disappointed IMO.

As someone else said, there's definitely lots to unpack on this one and after I listened to a bit of analysis and breakdown on it, my appreciation grew.

My main takeaway though was it was one of Leo's best ever performances, possibly even his best ever IMO. The range he shows in this film is incredible. Not easy to play someone on the fringe of absolute self-doubt and confidence, he nails it.

Also it's extremely obvious that the Bruce Lee fight is a dream/memory as it starts and ends with Cliff looking up into the sky off with the clouds. When he comes back he shakes his head at the memory. Also the ridiculous damage done to the car is a sure sign of unreliable narrator. I get why Lee's family would be pissed/offended but not sure why it made the public domain. I think it showed him in quite a positive light in the scene with Tate.

Also, Margot Robbie has such a gravitas. Absolute star. I think it was great they had the original Sharon Tate in the scene in the movies. Her character was a counter to Dalton's character in that her career is just starting and she is enthusiastic and excited about Hollywood rather than jaded. She is looking at the positives of the whole thing and I think the decision to have her survive is part of what QT is trying to say with this movie.
 

offtherails9

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Not sure if we need spoiler tags here but stop reading if you're avoiding them

Once you accept that the movie is both a homage to the Golden era of Hollywood (mostly the first half) and a fairytale/alternate history (mostly the second half) it becomes a lot more palatable. If you go in expecting the standard QT fare you'll be disappointed IMO.

As someone else said, there's definitely lots to unpack on this one and after I listened to a bit of analysis and breakdown on it, my appreciation grew.

My main takeaway though was it was one of Leo's best ever performances, possibly even his best ever IMO. The range he shows in this film is incredible. Not easy to play someone on the fringe of absolute self-doubt and confidence, he nails it.

Also it's extremely obvious that the Bruce Lee fight is a dream/memory as it starts and ends with Cliff looking up into the sky off with the clouds. When he comes back he shakes his head at the memory. Also the ridiculous damage done to the car is a sure sign of unreliable narrator. I get why Lee's family would be pi**ed/offended but not sure why it made the public domain. I think it showed him in quite a positive light in the scene with Tate.

Also, Margot Robbie has such a gravitas. Absolute star. I think it was great they had the original Sharon Tate in the scene in the movies. Her character was a counter to Dalton's character in that her career is just starting and she is enthusiastic and excited about Hollywood rather than jaded. She is looking at the positives of the whole thing and I think the decision to have her survive is part of what QT is trying to say with this movie.

I think we listened to the same pods but yeah you're correct with a few of those takes. I prefer to think that the Lee/Cliff scene instead was trying to show how much of a badass he was, making the last scene even more believable. However the dent in the car probably does signify an unreliable narrator.

All the criticisms of the film are pretty embarrassing and say a lot of the group think gang up mentality of social media in 2019. Fortunately Tarantino has prevailed and it has been one of his most financially successful and critically acclaimed movies. It'd be in my top 5 of the decade easily. Amazing movie.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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I find it his least successful film. Just really unsubtle indulgence throughout, and his writing appears to start with a few specific moments and then tries to find ways to write around it. Even Django and Death Proof surpass it for mine.

Like all Tarantino, really good and swell movie, but his easiest to pick apart for mine.
 

Dixie Normous

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Cliff Booth owns this movie - Brad Pitt played it like a combination of Tyler Durden, his character from 'True Romance' and his character from 'Kalifornia'

The 'You're real, right' and 'I'm as a real as a donut, motherfu**er' followed by Brad's reaction had me laughing harder than any scene I can remember seeing in a cinema

Quentin is still the King
 
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As someone said. I feel there was two parts. The first half of the movie a homage to 60's Hollywood and the second half, the Manson murders.

I got kinda bored in the first half. Maybe because so didn't live through 60's Hollywood so it was all a little lost on me. I get it though how other people will froth it.

It's like how I froth Stranger Things cos I grew up in the 80's. It's so relatable and amazing to me. But I don't connect with Hollywood in the late 60's.

So the first half of the movie was slow and kinda boring. The driving scenes. He needed an editor. If he was going for something in those scenes then it was lost on me. It was just pointless scenes of people driving cars woth no dialogue.

The second half of the movie I really enjoyed though and the final act was just insane in a really great way.

The ended sad too considering Tate and what could have been.
 

its free real estate

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Just watched it. I enjoyed it, thought the acting was excellent and the ending violence brilliant.

I felt it struggled narratively from a thematic point of view, in that it lacked a clear story to tell, until I began to appreciate the hippies as representative of a changing America and, by killing them, Cliff and Dalton defeat their demons that have arisen due to a changing Hoolywood that has left them in the past. You can see at the end DiCaprio feels more at peace and appreciated. I think if you take that view, it ties the whole story together and really caps it off.

Not in the top 4 QT's but I enjoyed it more than the Kill Bills or Django
It's a great movie, not Tarantino's best, but from the point of view that as an alternate history a lot more hinges on the events than Django Unchained or Inglorious Basterds. In the latter two, the bad guys ultimately lost in reality anyway, but in the former, they haven't. The politics of the hippies in the late 60s has become a dominant social force, for better or worse. Whereas had history happened like portrayed in Once Upon a Time, where the murder of a beautiful ingenue and her friends became instead a footnote in a new article where a bunch of home invaders got their comeuppance, a lot might have changed. Maybe no Jim Jones, maybe fewer aspiring serial killers through the 70s and 80s. Manson was the byword for evil for a generation, and inspiration for many. Imagine if that had happened differently.

The movie portrays a world that is a lot more open, and high trust - Hollywood stars are accessible, people hitchhike and pick up hitchhikers, traffic is minimal, everything seems cheap, and you can even have the confidence to call police pigs without them shooting or arresting you. It's no wonder it is his worst received movie by critics - it shows the world as it was before hippie liberalism destroyed it all.
 
As someone else said I think Leo’s performance was brilliant, his best ever.

Lee scene was great and Rick did mention to Russell’s character that Cliff was a war hero. If it was a dream sequence it was unusual to see a scene without Cliff (Rick and Russell).
Others have mentioned the long car scenes but I liked them, the noise, the complete lack of seat belts, not a care in the world type attitude. Especially the scene where Polanski was driving to the party with Tate. Long hair flowing, big motor roaring. Even Tate at the party, young, carefree, world at her feet.

I knew of Tate murders and how incredibly violent they were so to me there was this sad pall hanging above it all, and that final scene was kind of almost like ghostly, with these four young people greeting Rick.
 
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Others have mentioned the long car scenes but I liked them, the noise, the complete lack of seat belts, not a care in the world type attitude. Especially the scene where Polanski was driving to the party with Tate. Long hair flowing, big motor roaring. Even Tate at the party, young, carefree, world at her feet.

I'm a big fan of that era cars like Porsche 912 and VW Karmann Ghias so I loved those scenes. (Karmann Ghias never drove like that!) Polanski was driving a 1950s MG I think.
 

RobbyRoy

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Has it? I'm not really on the pulse with these things but everything I've heard has been universal praise.
Definitely ahead of The Hateful Eight in terms of critics reviews, possibly Jackie Brown as well, though the film has aged well in the 20 years since its release.
 

BuddysBiggestFan

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One of the worst movies I’ve watched.

Whole hippy ranch scene seemed pointless, and the violence at the end, smashing the girls head in, was way over the top.

Watch it clean up at the Oscars for being different.

Bring on Joker.
 
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Surprised by the reaction in here.

Tarantino's best film since Pulp Fiction with the only real negative being the over the top violence at the end. But that wasn't as distasteful as a similar issue in The Hateful Eight which borderline ruined that film for me. And given I was half expecting to see the horrific murder of the Tate party, where one of the guests was stabbed over 50 times, so it was probably preferred to the alternative.

The long scene at the ranch was some of the best tension I've seen in a film for some time, just growing and growing the whole time and never giving a release on its grip. Masterful film making.
 
One of the worst movies I’ve watched.

Whole hippy ranch scene seemed pointless, and the violence at the end, smashing the girls head in, was way over the top.

Watch it clean up at the Oscars for being different.

Bring on Joker.
First Tarantino movie?
 

OneEyedHawk

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Am typically a huge Tarantino fan, but absolutely hated this movie (aside from that 5 mins). Sat through the entire marathon thinking "WTF am I watching?".
First movie I've ever left the cinema happily to have a smoke break halfway through. Should've just kept smoking.
 
Am typically a huge Tarantino fan, but absolutely hated this movie (aside from that 5 mins). Sat through the entire marathon thinking "WTF am I watching?".
First movie I've ever left the cinema happily to have a smoke break halfway through. Should've just kept smoking.
How were you surprised by the violence then?
 
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