Review of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m watching.

For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.

So I quit and decided to focus on this blog. I also randomly fell into a period of unemployment because of unexpected circumstances, and I took a long and hard look at my finances and realized I had enough to take time off. I did end up doing that, traveled for a bit, applied to jobs, and found myself working on the blog now more than ever.

A new hobby I’ve acquired when it comes to sourcing films is going to my local library. I never used to appreciate the DVD section of the library, but when I was able to actually sit down and take my time going through what they had to offer, I was impressed.

In the age of streaming services and the fact we have to pay for everything, what do you mean I could find the somewhat new releases for free? Most people my age don’t own a DVD player, but I happily use my sister’s when I want to watch something that I’ve checked out from the library. If I didn’t live with other people, I wouldn’t have a television either, so I’m in the perfect moment for this revelation recently.

Anyways, it was in the DVD section when I found a copy of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and I had the realization that I’ve never actually seen this movie. I remember when it came out and how I wanted to watch it back then, but I never got around to it. So here we are: I’m finally watching it.

Let’s get into the review. I know these introductions can get quite long, and they’re often not what you’re here for, so I don’t want to keep rambling.

In the late 1960s, a film actor and his stunt double find out the industry is quickly changing, potentially leaving them behind.

This movie takes place in 1969, which feels like a monumental year in so many ways. The 1960s in American history were such a different time, and there were a lot of drastic changes, from Civil Rights finally being acknowledged, to the feminist movement budding, as well as the onset of war and US involvement abroad. This is just a little glimpse into a singular decade, but it seems fitting to set this movie then—especially with the Tate murders being in the background.

One of our main characters is Rick Dalton, who was a popular television star in the 1950s for his Westerns. He’s finding out that his career is in major decline, and he has no opportunities coming his way as of late. He only gets gigs as television villains, and his best friend, a stunt double, Cliff is living in a trailer and can’t really find work. Turns out there are rumors he killed his wife.

Rick attempts to make friends with his neighbors, who are Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, as he thinks they can bring him back into the folds of Hollywood. Shannon has an interesting scene where she goes to a movie theater for the general public to watch a movie with herself in it.

One day, Cliff is over and helping Rick put up a television antenna when he notices a weird hippie-ish guy wandering towards Polanski’s house. Turns out this is Charles Manson, and he’s looking for someone who used to live there. This is while Shannon is watching the movie and out of the house. Cliff then ends up in another weird situation: when he gives a hitchhiker called Pussycat a ride, they ask to go to Spahn Ranch.

Now Cliff used to do work at this ranch, so when he sees hippies have taken the place over, he gets really suspicious. He goes to visit George, the ranch’s owner, and finds him with a younger girl called Squeaky. They’re implied to have a potential sexual relationship, but as Cliff is trying to leave the ranch, he spots his tires were slashed. He makes the hippie Clem change it, and the hippies get their leader, Tex, to try and stop Cliff from leaving.

Tex doesn’t make it in time though, and Cliff gets away. Not long after this, Rick gets some work in a spaghetti western, and Cliff comes with him to Italy. Rick films more movies while there and finds a wife, then lets Cliff go as his employee. They come home to the US and start drinking together, but while Cliff goes to walk the dog, he spots some of the hippies/Manson followers on the road outside.

They’re arguing about what to do; turns out they’re here to murder the Polanski household. Rick gets pissed off when he hears how loud their car is and tells them to get out, and the group decides to murder him now instead. One of the hippies decides to flee with the car, leaving the rest alone to break into Rick’s home.

Cliff recognizes them immediately from the Ranch, and with the dog, they kill and injure two of the group. Rick, who’s in the pool, is shocked when one of the girls (played by Mikey Madison) stumbles into the area, then he uses a flamethrower to take her down.

As Cliff is taken away in an ambulance, the group in the Tate house, still alive, asks Rick if he wants to come over for a drink with them.

Overall Thoughts

One of the more interesting observations about this movie is that not only does it have a stacked cast, but I noticed pretty quickly what a talent Mikey Madison is from her few scenes at the end of the movie. I was literally looking her up after those scenes (this was before Anora blew up—that’s how deep my backlog is for this site right now), and was planning to watch Anora before it won all of these awards.

Dakota Fanning is someone else that I find to be fascinating in the roles she chooses. I love her and her sister’s filmographies in general, but this was the first movie I had seen with Dakota in a while, and she killed it.

Anyways, I don’t usually go for Tarantino movies, but I though this was well done. The guy is an auteur, that I can’t deny, but they’re usually not within my taste—although I sometimes enjoy the Korean and Asian movies they’re inspired by. That said, the technical elements in this movie and the script are impressive, and I liked how the multiple storylines are woven together.

I recommend seeing this if you haven’t already. Movies are not meant to be read about; you need to experience them with your own eyes on the big screen.

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