There's always a lot of hype when big directors like Tarrantino, Nolan or James Cameron release a movie. As expected, that was the case with Once upon a time in Hollywood, Tarrantino's 9th film which means he just has one more to go before he retires. There was even more hype when we came to know that it's going to have huge stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jeff Bridges, and Al Pacino.
So there were more than enough reasons to go watch it. The film released earlier in America with early positive reviews drawing even more attention to it. Leonardo DiCaprio is finally making a movie after 3 years which was the main reason for me to go see it, I knew that no matter the strength of the plot, DiCaprio would have given it everything.
DiCaprio plays the role of Rick Dalton joined by Brad Pitt who plays his stunt double, Cliff Booth and they're reaching the end of their career (Tarrantino's 9th film) and are not feeling great about the fact that they're being deprived of greater opportunities and are being sidelined by playing villain roles and made to star in smaller films. The first half of the movie is about DiCaprio reacting to it and he does a phenomenal job as always. Brad Pitt basically drives him around, trying to constantly motivate him and to look on the brighter side of things.
This was basically the first 2 hours of the movie, Brad Pitt driving around in a car and DiCaprio drinking and drowning himself in self-pity. The movie never really got anywhere after that. DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are two Hollywood legends who do an extremely good job but despite their tremendous performances, there was nothing else to keep me hooked and made the story interesting. Also, one good scene towards the end of a movie does not make up for the fact that the previous two full hours were boring.
Throughout the movie, there are multiple callbacks to Tarantino's previous hits like Inglourious Basterds and pulp fiction, a bunch of scenes featuring 'feet'. Tarantino's previous films, Hateful Eight and Django unchained didn't have any feet scenes, I thought he was over his foot fetish and decided to focus on the plot more but he has compensated for that here. Also, it felt like great actors were kind of wasted with useless plots, for instance, if you remove all of Margot Robbie's scenes from the movie, it would make no difference at all.
I get that the movie is a tribute to the 1960s Hollywood but I just wished that there was more substance to the plot than tremendous camera work, incredible acting, and brilliant soundtracks. Hollywood critics would definitely like this kind of flick but this isn't for everyone, not even for all Tarrantino fans and definitely not for the mainstream audience. This is one of Tarantino's weakest films, probably his weakest in my opinion and I hope that his 10th and final film has a better plot, I get that he's trying to explore different genres in his 10 film journey, I'm not saying that this film is unwatchable in any way, I just feel like he got carried away by his film making techniques and tricks rather than focusing on the plot, or maybe there was something great and I missed it, nevertheless, I'm not sure if I can re-watch it, I definitely don't recommend this one for the main audience, especially the Indian mainstream audience, I don't think we'll have much joy while watching it but if you're a Tarrantino fan who loves his way of storytelling, maybe you can give it a try.
Verdict
Tarrantino fan in me: 7/10
Critic in me: 5/10
Most of the points there are because of DiCaprio's brilliant performance which might get him another Oscar nomination and it also goes without saying that Brad Pitt killed it. Without these two, it would have been really hard to sell the movie.
Critic in me: 5/10
Most of the points there are because of DiCaprio's brilliant performance which might get him another Oscar nomination and it also goes without saying that Brad Pitt killed it. Without these two, it would have been really hard to sell the movie.
