"Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood" is Quentin Tarantino's 9th feature film (his penultimate, if he really decides to retire after his 10th film, as he's said before). From countless references to a myriad of films (pastiche or homage, depending on how you look at it) to excessive shots of female feet and an ultraviolent climax, it seems like just your typical Tarantino film. It is. But that's not necessarily a good thing.
The only Tarantino film I truly love is Pulp Fiction, though I find things to admire in all of them. I've always admired him more as a fellow film buff than as a filmmaker. He's undeniably talented, but extremely self-indulgent. Still, he's one of the few living filmmakers (Paul Thomas Anderson - a much superior filmmaker - is another one) that give us a true film event with every new work they release. They both make one film every few years, but while Anderson manages to always surprise us with the complexity and maturity of his work, Tarantino has been stuck with the simplistic "revenge fantasy" genre that he redefined with Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012).
I can't really express my disappointment with Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood without giving away spoilers. I won't bother with plot details and a synopsis, since I'm assuming you've seen the film if you're reading this. Just like Basterds ended with Nazis getting killed and Django gave slaves a chance to get revenge on their "masters," OUATIH ends with the Manson followers that murdered Sharon Tate and her friends in 1969... getting killed by Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. In Tarantino's overlong, meandering and superficial "love letter" to Los Angeles and movies, Sharon Tate gets to live.
At the same time that I think we did NOT need another sensationalist movie depicting the Manson murders in graphic detail - and we all wish Tate had had a happy ending - I also find the "revenge fantasy" genre, when focusing on such tragic events (Holocaust, slavery, and the senseless murdering of innocents), to be simplistic and somewhat disrespectful. It is indeed easy to give the audience bloody satisfaction in seeing members of the Manson clan dying in a most grotesque way. It's also borderline idiotic. Tarantino can do whatever he wants with his films; as one should. But the 56 year-old filmmaker that he is now isn't any more mature than the 28 year-old that made Reservoir Dogs. His work is entertaining, and for some it's even cathartic; but it's too shallow for its own good. There's more to the art of filmmaking than rewriting history in straight lines, just like I believe there are superior films that Tarantino could give us if he tried a bit harder.
The only Tarantino film I truly love is Pulp Fiction, though I find things to admire in all of them. I've always admired him more as a fellow film buff than as a filmmaker. He's undeniably talented, but extremely self-indulgent. Still, he's one of the few living filmmakers (Paul Thomas Anderson - a much superior filmmaker - is another one) that give us a true film event with every new work they release. They both make one film every few years, but while Anderson manages to always surprise us with the complexity and maturity of his work, Tarantino has been stuck with the simplistic "revenge fantasy" genre that he redefined with Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012).
I can't really express my disappointment with Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood without giving away spoilers. I won't bother with plot details and a synopsis, since I'm assuming you've seen the film if you're reading this. Just like Basterds ended with Nazis getting killed and Django gave slaves a chance to get revenge on their "masters," OUATIH ends with the Manson followers that murdered Sharon Tate and her friends in 1969... getting killed by Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. In Tarantino's overlong, meandering and superficial "love letter" to Los Angeles and movies, Sharon Tate gets to live.
At the same time that I think we did NOT need another sensationalist movie depicting the Manson murders in graphic detail - and we all wish Tate had had a happy ending - I also find the "revenge fantasy" genre, when focusing on such tragic events (Holocaust, slavery, and the senseless murdering of innocents), to be simplistic and somewhat disrespectful. It is indeed easy to give the audience bloody satisfaction in seeing members of the Manson clan dying in a most grotesque way. It's also borderline idiotic. Tarantino can do whatever he wants with his films; as one should. But the 56 year-old filmmaker that he is now isn't any more mature than the 28 year-old that made Reservoir Dogs. His work is entertaining, and for some it's even cathartic; but it's too shallow for its own good. There's more to the art of filmmaking than rewriting history in straight lines, just like I believe there are superior films that Tarantino could give us if he tried a bit harder.