Film Review: Why Millenials Didn’t Like ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’
RATING: ★★★
As one of Tarantino’s last films before signing off for retirement, Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood should have been more well-received than it was. Trotting Quentin’s usual arrangement of cowboys, Nazis, and flamethrowers, for a 3-hour movie, it was pretty much completely devoid of a story. For instance, if you didn’t know who Sharon Tate was or the Manson Family, or about the Spahn Ranch, then this may have been the most nonsensical movie Quentin ever made. Alas, QT’s foot fetish is alive and well in this 2019 “classic,” bordering on making fun of himself and his older movies, as it tells the story of life in the 60s, Old Hollywood, and a sweet tale of friendship between characters Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth.
As others have already noted, this is a Nostalgia movie. Some would say you would have had to have lived in the 60s to really “get it,” but Quentin Tarantino has done a fantastic job of capturing the period for the ones who didn’t. From the bus stop ads to the music, sentimental shots of Cliff driving down Forest Lawn Drive, QT has captured the flavor of Los Angeles in its time. Unfortunately, apart from the scenic portrait and the odd joke here and there, this screenplay was bland and slightly boring throughout. Whatever happened to the enigmatic dialogue that Quentin used to write? You’ll have to hit pause an hour in just to stop and ask yourself, “Is anything going to happen?” And something does happen, it’s just a slow drive getting there.
One “Boomer” wrote:
“Really frustrating on Twitter reading a lot of the young people’s views on this movie. Most of them don’t get this movie because they are uninformed about history. They don’t know the background and story of the Charles Manson Family, Spahn Ranch, their connection to Sharon Tate and the location of where Sharon Tate lived which was the home of Terry Melcher prior to Sharon Tate living there. Terry Melcher was Doris Day’s son and he was a record producer who rejected Charles Manson’s music career aspirations. Charles Manson was looking for revenge and even though Melcher moved, Manson still hated the rich Hollywood elite and so he sent his family member’s there to kill everyone there anyhow. In this movie, Leo changed their target after he walked outside and confronted them while drunk and holding a blender!”
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