Once a Upon a Time in Hollywood is about what you’d expect… Amazing!

Oh yay! I saw a new movie today and it was actually great! Looking back on all of the 2019 movies that I have reviewed on this site, I don’t remember many being great. (Hobbs and Shaw was a different type of great!) This is a Quentin Tarantino movie and he has a plethora of masterful movies under his belt and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood adds another notch to that belt.

This movie doesn’t really have a normal plot structure as it’s more just a series of events that are loosely connected, but they all tie into the theme that old Hollywood is dying. In a weird sense it feels more like real life than an actual movie. Real life doesn’t follow a movie structure and it meanders a lot and doesn’t have much of a point. (Wow I’m a real downer today!)

About as exciting as real life.

 

It’s also best to note this movie is over 2 hours and 40 minutes long because not knowing this in advance did negatively affect my movie going experience. Scenes just kind of went on and didn’t seem to have much point, though my feelings may change after multiple viewings. For this movie it works as the movie retains your interest with it’s comedy, the terrific acting and well written long dialogue scenes – all staples of Tarantino films.

This movie feels like it was made by a fan of old Hollywood. There are many scenes which recreate old westerns and scenes of big actors just watching crime shows. This was my favourite aspect of the film. It was very entertaining seeing Leonardo DiCaprio being inserted into these 50’s action movies or even just hanging around on a movie set. DiCaprio was phenomenal in this movie as a washed up, has been, television star desperately trying to reignite his career. He also has great chemistry with his stunt man played by Brad Pitt, who was also amazing as this utter badass who looks like he could take his own movie.

Margot Robbie was also pretty good, though I was surprised to learn she’s barely in it, especially since she’s on the poster and in the trailers. This is probably because she plays the only real character out of our three main leads. What they do with her is a lot of fun along with other real things from the time period, but I’m going to leave it at that.

The best commercial of the year.

The presentation is amazing as well as the music, cinematography and editing. There are certain aspects I’m a bit iffy on, mainly with the beginning of the third act where it started to lose me as it felt too dragged out for my liking. I do plan to see this movie again though, so I might change my mind. It’s a near masterpiece in my opinion and there is nothing else like this film on the market.

It’s a 9 to 10/10 for me and it definitely earns the long overdue first Blog Complainer Approved Seal of 2019. I highly recommend you check it out, but I know it won’t be for everyone as it’s very dialogue heavy and ironically it’s not a traditional Hollywood movie. Do as you will, but I know I want seconds! I have been The Blog Complainer, signing out.