Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood Cert: 18, 2hrs 41mins
Two things immediately strike me about Quentin Tarantino’s much-awaited new film, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. First – as the title clearly suggests, but I didn’t really believe because, you know, it’s Tarantino – it really is a fairy tale.
Yes, it may be set in a wonderfully convincing version of Hollywood in the late Sixties and, yes, it features real-life characters such as Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski and Steve McQueen, but that doesn’t mean events are necessarily going to play out as they did in real life.
The second is that when American cinema audiences flocked to see it last month, opening-day film-goers surveyed for their reaction gave it a ‘B’ ‘CinemaScore’ – lower than the ‘A’ they gave Django Unchained and seriously out of step with the five-star reviews the new film picked up at Cannes, where it first earned the much-repeated accolade that this was Tarantino’s best since Pulp Fiction.
Leonardo DiCaprio is outstanding in the central role of Rick Dalton. He takes whatever is offered, being driven from lot to lot by his regular stunt-double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt)
That ‘B’ score is interesting because there is a big part of me that agrees. Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is over-long, over-indulged, structurally incoherent at times and seriously, off-puttingly violent towards the typically Tarantino end.
There’s more than a touch of old-fashioned male chauvinism on display too. Tate – played here by Margot Robbie, and pretty much the only significant female character – has little more to do than look sexy in white mini-skirt and matching boots while, later, a young, female, denim-short-clad hitchhiker is shot entirely from behind as she leans into a car to ask for a lift.
Sorry, Quentin, people just don’t shoot scenes like that any more, just as they don’t exploit dated Asian stereotypes for comic effect, as the great man unrepentantly also does with a controversial scene involving the martial-arts star Bruce Lee.
Sharon Tate – played here by Margot Robbie, and pretty much the only significant female character – has little more to do than look sexy in white mini-skirt and matching boots
So there is a part of me that thinks B – the equivalent perhaps of three stars – is about right.
But I can also see what the film’s noisy champions are going on about. This is Tarantino’s love letter to the movie town that made him, and indeed to the films and the film-making he so loves.
Set, as it is, in the past and laced through with movie nostalgia (drive-ins, 35mm prints and B-movies all feature), it’s also a tribute to – almost a lament for – a style of film and film-making that doesn’t exist any more.
Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is set in a wonderfully convincing version of Hollywood in the late Sixties and it features real-life characters such as Al Pacino
Except perhaps here, when every shot, every scene – from the cinematography to the period wardrobe and the immaculately curated music – has been assembled with enormous skill and care.
And that’s the sort of thing that gets real film buffs very excited indeed.
But do all these brilliantly crafted individual components come together to form a coherent, satisfying whole? I’d say nearly but not quite, while those early American audiences would clearly put it rather more strongly.
As long as you have the summertime stamina for a film running to well over two-and-a-half hours (and, yes, you probably should stay for the end credits, which contain one last treat), there is much to admire here, alongside the obvious technical skill, beginning with Leonardo DiCaprio.
He’s outstanding in the central role of Rick Dalton, a star of television westerns who’s never quite established himself in films and now fears his moment may have passed. So he takes whatever is offered, being driven from lot to lot by his regular stunt-double and part-time friend and general gopher, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).
Pitt, perhaps the only man in the world who still looks good in double denim, is forever the bridesmaid when it comes to acting awards, and I’m not sure much is going to change here.
But he is funny and cool and his army of female fans will want to know that he gratuitously takes his shirt off while working on Rick’s roof. It may be nearly 28 years since Thelma & Louise, but judging by the reaction in the packed screening I attended, old Brad has still got it.
As the minutes, then hours, tick by, however, it becomes clear that there are some very long scenes doing precious little to advance the plot. Goodness, there’s a lot of padding here.
But slowly, as we watch the lovely Sharon skipping off to the cinema to watch her new film, and Cliff getting entangled with a Manson-like cult, a mounting sense of dread and unease sets in. We all know how this is going to end… or at least we think we do.
Just remember two things: it is a Tarantino film but it’s also a fairy tale. So while the inevitable climactic violence – complete with self-indulgent, fiery reference to one of his own films – cannot be postponed for ever, one or two people may get to live happily ever after.
Brutal, but unexpectedly touching too.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Good Boys (15)
Rating: 
This is one of the unexpected treats of the summer, though a comedy that combines sex, drugs and a lot of swearing with a trio of ten-year-old boys won’t be for everyone.
It’s the story of three young friends – dubbed ‘the bean-bag boys’ because that’s where they spend most of their time – who know there’s a big exciting teenage world out there but struggle to make sense of it.
So when their drone-assisted kissing research accidentally results in them being in possession of some stolen drugs, pursued by two angry teenage girls and with an expensive drone to replace… well, they are in all sorts of trouble.
The boys are beautifully cast, with contrasted and well-drawn characters (From left, Brady Noon, Jacob Tremblay and the endearing Keith L Williams as Lucas)
The boys are beautifully cast, with contrasted and well-drawn characters. I particularly liked Lucas (Keith L Williams) and his endearing but not always helpful habit of never lying.
What duly ensues is rude, funny and surprisingly sweet.
Dora And The Lost City Of Gold (PG)
Rating: 
Based on a US children’s cartoon series, this is a live-action reboot that sees the now 16-year-old Dora (Isabela Moner) being kidnapped from her LA high school, promptly escaping with three mismatched friends and heading off into the South American jungle to look for her missing explorer parents and a lost Inca city.
Despite the switch from animation to live action, this still feels like something you would see on TV, with over-the-top performances from the adults, some decidedly dodgy visual effects and a Scooby-Doo-like plot.
The hyper-energetic Isabela Moner (above with Eva Longoria and Michael Peña) gives it her wide-eyed all but no one seems to have decided whether this is for small children or not
The hyper-energetic Moner gives it her wide-eyed all but no one seems to have decided whether this is for small children, like the original, or an older teenage audience.
The result is a slightly uncomfortable watch.
Transit (12A)
Rating: 
This may be based on a 1944 wartime novel but director-adapter Christian Petzold has shifted it to an alternate version of the present day to initially intriguing effect, as Georg (Franz Rogowski) assumes a dead man’s identity to flee Paris for Marseille.
The time-shift muddies everything though, and then the already rather Kafkaesque proceedings take a turn or two too many and lose impact.