Once Upon a Time in . . . Hollywood (2019)

This Week: Once Upon a Time in . . . Hollywood

So Quentin Tarantino is one of those directors that my first impulse is to not want to watch the movie.  Or at least that is how it was for me when I was younger.  I’m not sure how much younger, but as a note, this is my FIRST Quentin Tarantino film to see in theaters.  For movies like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Kill Bill, this makes sense, because I wasn’t old enough to see those movies in theaters.  However I was a man grown when Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight came out.  Each of those I waited until they were streaming before watching.  Hateful Eight, I still haven’t seen, even though that was the first one I wanted to see from the get go.

I am not a fan of gore for gore’s sake.  I avoid movies like Saw, Hostel, or Human Centipede.  I am not a fan of torture.  Quentin Tarantino is very well known for violence, blood, and torture scenes.  No matter how many movies I watch of Quentin Tarantino, I am always worried that THIS will be the one that I can’t tolerate due to the violence and gore crossing a line.

But once I actually WATCH the films, I love them.  Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained are my favorites.  The gore and violence are just fun and not the trauma I am expecting to bill my therapist for.  Maybe I should FINALLY give From Dusk till Dawn a try.

Maybe later.

Now to Once Upon a Time in. . . Hollywood.  I’m going to admit, while I was watching the movie, I was kind of bored and wondering when the movie was going to start.  In fact, one of the more interesting bits was a cockroach that was walking across the bannister in front of me.  The couple next to me actually took a picture of it.  Then they decided they didn’t want to watch this movie with the cockroach and walked out.

I’m just glad my wife wasn’t there with me or else I would not know how this movie ended.

Honestly it is a bunch of fun scenes that are pieced together, but no real narrative comes together.  The narrator basically tells us how Rick and Cliff are experiencing their respective careers, but there really isn’t a story until the very end.  Even then it is just something that is dropped in Rick and Cliff’s laps and they barely know what is going on due to being high and drunk.

Although I was initially kind of bored and wondered when the movie would start coming together, by the end I wanted to know what happened next in the lives of Cliff and Rick.  And like most Quentin Tarantino movies, the most fun is thinking about all the awesome dialogue and scenes afterwards.

Time for a Spoiler warning. . .

You know between this movie and Inglorious Basterds, I’m beginning to wonder how many of the historic tragedies have been averted or set right in the Tarantino-verse.  Was 9/11 averted?  Columbine?  The trailers and story sort of hint at Sharon Tate being a more central role in the movie, but she is sort of just a side story of little consequence.  In fact, due to her murderers getting yelled at in the street, her significance is practically cut completely out by her, you know, not getting murdered.

Hey I said Spoilers.

Anywho, once you realize there isn’t a tight cohesive narrative and series of events leading up to a thrilling climax, and realize it is just a couple of weekends in the life of a has been actor and his stunt double, it is a fun movie.  I recommend it.

Next Week: Blinded by the Light, but first DISNEY WORLD!(While, after I saw Once Upon a Time in. . .Hollywood, I then went to Disneyworld, but that was back in August.  But still)