Despite the fighting, bloodshed and, often, gore that populates a Quentin Tarantino film, there almost always a key emotional thrust to the storyline.  Whether it’s Django’s search for his wife Broomhilda or Jackie Brown’s unrequited love for her bail bondsman or The Bride seeking revenge for her unborn daughter, it’s been there.  Tarantino, however, has never made a film that ends up as sweet and nostalgic as his latest, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

Debuting at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival 25 years after Pulp Fiction took the Palm d’ Or, Once Upon begins its tale on Saturday, February 8, 1969 in the heart of tinseltown. Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a once popular TV actor who starred in the ‘50s TV series Bounty Law, now finds himself relegated to guest spots to pay the bills.  His almost constant companion is Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), his one-time stunt double that now mostly acts as his chauffer and house sitter (it appears Rick earned a few too many DUI’s to keep driving that fancy car of his).

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Image via Sony Pictures

While having drinks at Musso and Frank’s Grill one evening, producer Marvin Schwarzs (Al Pacino), tries to convince Rick to move to Rome to star in Spaghetti Westerns. According to Marvin, once you start playing the villain in too many guest appearances the television viewing audience will no longer see you as the hero.  And the way things are going his chances of getting another leading role in a TV program are slim.  Why not go to Italy and make some money?  Rick walks away horrified at the prospect telling Cliff that this must mean his acting career is on its last legs.

When they arrive at Rick’s home in the Hollywood Hills, Tarantino makes sure the street sign comes into full view for the audience.  Rick lives on Ceilo Drive, a road notorious in the history of Los Angeles.  That’s also the street where Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha) and his wife Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) lived.  Tate and three others were killed in her home by members of the Manson family in a crime that rocked Hollywood and the nation.  But we are months from that massacre.  In Once Upon, Rick is Tate’s neighbor and simply can’t believe the Rosemary Baby director has moved in next door.

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Image via Sony Pictures

A few days later Rick is working on another TV Western, Lancer.  This time he’s guest starring in the unexpectedly juicy part as, yes, you guessed it, a villain in the Old West, but this part is actually pretty good.  DiCaprio plays the emotional insecurity of an actor here to pitch perfect effect as Rick’s insecurity over his own talent is so low it takes the adulation of his 8-year-old co-star to make him think he still might have it. Rick knocks it out of the park though.  The talent is legit.

Cliff, meanwhile, has been flirting with Kitty Kat (Margaret Qualley), a “hippie” he keeps seeing around town that is always looking to hitchhike. Free for the day, he offers her a ride only to discover she’s living on the Spahn Ranch in Chatsworth with a bunch of her “friends.”  That’s a property quite far from the center of the city where Cliff had shot a few Westerns years before (historical note: it was the primary exterior for Bonanza).  When they arrive, Cliff immediately realizes things are a little off.  There are a ton of young “hippie” women about and just a few men staying on the property.  The audience likely knows these are members of Charles Manson’s cult, but Cliff surely doesn’t. He eventually gets by the intimidating Squeaky (Dakota Fanning) to check up on the owner, George Spahn (Bruce Dern), but the old man is blind and dementia may have gotten the best of him.

As all this transpires, Sharon is enjoying her return to Los Angeles.  She heads to the Bruin Theater in Westwood to watch her latest film, The Wrecking Crew and goes to the Playboy mansion with Roman where she dances the night away.  She’s a light, a pixie on Hollywood’s star-filled sky.

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Image via Sony Pictures

Eventually Rick, along with Cliff, head to Italy for six months.  He makes some movies, gains some weight and returns home with a new Italian wife, Francesca (Lorenza Izzo).  Rick also gives Cliff the inevitable news he won’t be able to afford his services any longer.  But after a long transatlantic flight they decide to have dinner to celebrate coming home.  It’s August 9, 1969. A night that will mark an end of an era in Hollywood.

We’re not going to pretend that Once Upon isn’t another Tarantino film that plays with revisionist history.  The fact Rick lives right next to Polanski and Tate gives that away very early on.  There is a difference this time around.  Unlike Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, what happens in Once Upon isn’t in the context of revenge or moral justice.  Born in 1963, Tarantino spent much of his childhood in Los Angeles county.  He was only six on that fateful night, but he knows how it tainted how many saw Hollywood from that point forward.  The faux innocence meticulously managed by the big studio machines had been fading for a decade, but it was truly lost that night.  And, if you didn’t know already, Tarantino loves Hollywood which is why this film is the ultimate love letter from him.  You can tell from the moment Tarantino puts the camera behind Rick and Cliff as they drive through the curves of the Hollywood Hills.  That’s something you come to love about LA only when you live there.  He returns to it often.  He also breathtakingly restores landmarks such as the Van Nuys Drive-In, the marquees on Hollywood Blvd, the Cinerama Dome, the Vine theater and even a Taco Bell (not a misprint), just to name a few.  There’s no homeless people.  No crime.  No boarded-up stores or empty parking lots.  Those were all there in 1969, of course, but not in Once Upon.  Only the magic stands out.

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Image via Sony Pictures

Tarantino makes sure there is also a lot of fun to go around though.  Cliff has a showdown with Bruce Lee on the set of The Green Hornet and his faithful dog deserves star billing.  There’s an acid dipped cigarette that you know is going to matter at some point. Familiar faces such as Timothy Olyphant, Luke Perry, Mark Madsen, Lena Dunham and Damien Lewis stand out in small roles.  And while Kurt Russell appears on screen as stunt coordinator it’s his gentle voice over that makes you eventually realize the narrator is not only reading from a book, but a fairy tale to be precise.

And, yes, people get punched.  There are some shocking happenings from a gore standpoint although compared to other Tarantino fare it’s tempered a bit. But it also elicits a reaction no other Tarantino film has to date.  In fact, it seems sacrilegious to describe it this way, but when the final shot fades out and the title of the film appears on screen it may be the first Tarantino film that leaves with a genuine sense of, wait for it, hope.

Grade: A-

Catch up on all of our reviews from the 2019 Cannes Film Festival below:

This is a repost of Gregory's review of the film from Cannes earlier this year.

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