{"id":93225,"date":"2019-07-27T14:25:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-27T18:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/brad-leo-shine-in-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-movie-review\/"},"modified":"2019-07-27T14:25:25","modified_gmt":"2019-07-27T18:25:25","slug":"brad-leo-shine-in-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/brad-leo-shine-in-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad & Leo Shine in \u2018Once Upon a Time \u2026 in Hollywood\u2019 \u2014 Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad & Leo Shine in \u2018Once Upon a Time \u2026 in Hollywood\u2019 \u2014 Movie Review<\/b><\/p>\n

Brad & Leo make a dreamy dream team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[Spoiler-free review]<\/strong> Here\u2019s the best way to know that you\u2019re inside an auteur\u2019s movie. It\u2019s impossible to imagine it having been made by anyone else. Quentin Tarantino\u2019s 10th feature film (creatively referred to as his 9th, presumably to give him a retirement out after his various \u201cI\u2019ll quit after 10 films!\u201d proclamations) is a fable about Hollywood. The movie begins in 1968 and ends in the summer of 1969 when the very pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski\u2019s new wife, and her house guests were all brutally murdered by the Manson family. Any number of filmmakers could have made a movie about that infamous year in California, but only Tarantino could have made Once Upon a Time \u2026 in Hollywood<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, dancing the night away in 1968<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Historical events, real ones at least, have never been as sacred to Tarantino as the history of the movies. Whenever he\u2019s dipped into \u201chistory\u201d \u2014 Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds<\/em> \u2014 it\u2019s been as emotionally loaded prefab worlds from which to spin his own idiosyncratic yarns.\u00a0 In this regard Once Upon a Time <\/em>is no exception. To this viewer, though, his latest movie feels closer in spirit to Pulp Fiction<\/em>. It\u2019s even tempting, though inaccurate and glib, to describe Once Upon a Time \u2026 in Hollywood<\/em> as a movie length riff on that restaurant scene in Pulp Fiction<\/em> from the POV of the waiters \u201cMarilyn\u201d and \u201cElvis\u201d, what with all the famous actors masquerading as other famous actors.<\/p>\n

Though we spend intermittent time with the then-rising star Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie, luminous if not much more given the confines of the role) she\u2019s more decor than subject. The story is about Tate\u2019s fictional next door neighbor, TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio, in his best star turn since at least The Departed<\/em>) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt, still a f***ing movie star!). Dalton and Booth are minor Hollywood players now, their glory years behind them. Dalton has been reduced to guest star appearances as the \u201cheavy\u201d on various TV shows and Booth rarely works as a stuntman, earning his meager living as a kind of hired-friend. Booth\u2019s primary work is as Dalton\u2019s driver. <\/p>\n

\n
Brad somehow still has his Thelma & Louise body 28 years later<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

We spend a lot of time with the two men<\/a> in the car, driving to and from the star\u2019s home. Among the many glorious and funny visual touches (Barbara Ling is the production designer) is a cutout detail from a billboard or movie poster, bearing what I think<\/em> is bad painting of Rick Dalton\u2019s face, that\u2019s used to mark Dalton\u2019s reserved parking spot\u2026 at his own home<\/em>. Booth\u2019s junkier car gets the non-marked spot right next to it.<\/p>\n

The first time I went to Los Angeles alone in the early Aughts, I didn\u2019t rent a car. The mistake \u2014 which I chalked up to living in New York City where everyone<\/em> walks \u2014 was readily apparent. There were few pedestrian friendly sidewalks. People were staring. Every subsequent trip has involved lots of time in cars, rentals or ubers. Sometimes the distance between where you\u2019re coming from and where you\u2019re going is quite short, but try telling that to the traffic. Time stretches on indefinitely. My mind kept drifting to all that vehicular stasis during the movie\u2019s longueurs. \u2018Where is this picture going and why is it taking so long to get\u2026 Ooh, this scene is fun!\u2019\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Lena Dunham, Margaret Qualley and Brad Pitt in one of the film\u2019s lengthiest scenes, spent at the ranch where the Manson family lived
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once Upon a Time<\/em>\u2019s connective tissue between its episodes is spent on the streets and highways of Los Angeles, with Booth chauffeuring us, or Dalton, or, in one particularly memorable foot-fetishist-friendly scene, Manson-acolyte \u201cPussycat\u201d (Margaret Qualley), through the mythic town. Once Upon a Time\u2026 <\/em>has been described as a \u201changout\u201d movie which is the nicest possible way to refer to its indulgent nearly 3 hour running time\u2026 and perhaps the most accurate, too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, unlike the frankly tiresome running times of Tarantino\u2019s recent films (I absolutely cannot with The Hateful Eight<\/em>), Once Upon a Time<\/em> is a surprisingly pleasant way to while away three hours, barring two politically questionable sequences. One thankfully brief scene that we wish had been cut makes a kind of joke out of violence against women<\/a> (a strange misstep given the sympathetic treatment of the Tate subplot). The other pits Bruce Lee (a hugely entertaining cameo from Mike Moh) against Booth in a dick<\/a> measuring fight that\u2019s half performative for the crew on the set of one of Dalton\u2019s shows. This fight scene narratively serves to demonstrate to the audience how formidable Booth is since we only know of him up this point as a washed-up stuntman. There was surely a way to set that up without the ludicrous suggestion that he\u2019d be Bruce Lee\u2019s equal (my plus one at the screening, a longtime cinephile friend, singled out the scene as his least favorite, \u201cAs a minority, I get so sick of \u2018Mighty Whitie!\u2019\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
Mike Moh in a (hopefully) star-making cameo as Bruce Lee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Those two scenes aside, the movie is funny, visually memorable, and even kind of sweet, which is not typically an adjective anyone would dole out to a Tarantino picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dalton is briefly lured away to Italy snag the leading roles he can\u2019t get in Hollywood (Al Pacino has a lot of fun in his cameo doing the luring). Yet the bulk of the picture concerns the industry town itself and its tangled mix of haves (Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski), hangers on (Emile Hirsch as Tate\u2019s close friend\/former lover Jay Sebring), used-to-haves (Dalton) and have-nots (Booth). All that plus the\u00a0 fringe dwellers (the Manson family) who are geographically close but live<\/a> in an entirely different world.<\/p>\n

Though several scenes and glorious recreations of historic movie marquees remind us of Tarantino\u2019s love of cinema history, the movie\u2019s stealth subject appears to be the loneliness of stardom, and its stealth tribute is to 1960s television. When Sharon Tate wanders the town stopping to check out one of her own movies, she feels enormous pride when the audience reacts well to her performance. Yet in every sequence in which she looks radiantly happy she is notably alone. Later, it\u2019s weirdly moving (and funny!) when Dalton is all-too excited to watch an episode of FBI <\/em>he guests on with Booth, who appears to be his only friend. In the best and lengthiest Dalton-specific episode we spend a day with him on set where he struggles with his dialogue and ridicules himself alone in his trailer before meeting a child star (Julia Butters, a major scene-stealer) who inspires him to up his game.<\/p>\n

\n
Cliff and Rick spend nearly all their free time together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The scene that, to this non-Angelenos, works to signify this film experience best as a whole, complete with all of its meanderings, comes early. At first it plays like \u2018why didn\u2019t you cut this?\u2019 nothingness. The scene is a solo affair with no obvious narrative purpose. We\u2019re in the car with Booth as he drives from Dalton\u2019s expensive home, tearing through the streets of LA like he\u2019s filming a stunt-driving scene. This indulgence, which must only be for atmosphere, morphs into something moving and fun and hazy-dreamy (cinematography by three time Oscar winner Robert Richardson) as the road stretches on and historic sites whiz by. Eventually we end up at the legendary Van Nuys Drive In. Our destination is, surprise, not the historic movie site, but a vacant lot behind it. <\/p>\n

Brandy the pitbull steals all her scenes in \u201cOnce Upon a Time \u2026 in Hollywood\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There Booth lives in a tiny trailer that he shares with his female<\/a> pitbull Brandy (arguably the\u00a0film\u2019s most entertaining character). She waits obediently on the couch for her meal. One can of dog food slides grotesquely and sloooowwwly from its can \u2014 falling into its bowl with a memorable gelatinous plop. Then a second, of a different flavor but no less revolting color\u2013 lands on the top, splattering bits to the floor. She licks her lips in anticipation, comically. Time keeps stretching out. Booth\/Tarantino isn\u2019t done preparing this meal just yet. In a surprise twist Booth pulls some dry food from the cupboard, sprinkling it randomly and chaotically on top. It\u2019s all too much. It shouldn\u2019t<\/em> be delicious. Maybe it\u2019s not but we\u2019re hungry. Brandy is finally given the sound cue, and leaps from the couch. <\/p>\n

What a mess but, also, what a feast!<\/p>\n

The post Brad & Leo Shine in \u2018Once Upon a Time \u2026 in Hollywood\u2019 \u2014 Movie Review<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"
\n<\/p>\n

Brad & Leo Shine in ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ \u2014 Movie Review<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n