Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Director: Quentin Tarantino

2019 / 161min / 35mm

Tarantino’s last film to date is, among other things, a charmingly ambling hangout movie and an object lesson in the very real existence of “star power” and what it can do when harnessed by a director who understands how to use it: you will be totally transfixed watching Brad Pitt driving around aimlessly, feeding his dog chow, and fixing up his roof without a shirt on because, damn it, he’s Brad Pitt. In c. 1969 Los Angeles and environs, Pitt’s swaggering stunt double Cliff Booth, Leo DiCaprio’s on-the-way-down horse opera star Rick Dalton, and Margot Robbie’s up-and-coming actress Sharon Tate all go about their daily routines, blissfully unaware, like the rest of the glittering movie colony, of something sinister gestating at the Spahn Movie Ranch, of a blight growing in the midst of their verdant paradise. Extra credit for very good use of a flame thrower.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment

Part of What Price Hollywood?