Movie Details
| Title: | Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood | |
| Director: | Quentin Tarantino | |
| Year: | 2019 | |
| Genre: | Movie About Movies | |
| Times Seen: | 3 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.08.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (5)
- Django Unchained
- The Hateful Eight
- Inglourious Basterds
- Jackie Brown
- Kill Bill Vol. 1
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.08.24 | Internet | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2024 Well folks, it's that time of year again. DVRfest! Out of the blue!!! This is the 20th DVRfest, which means this site is 20 years old. I had loose plans to really do it up this year, take a full week off work, really jam a ton of movies in, but then two things happened. 1: I had to semi-emergency take two weeks off work to go to Arizona which ate up all my time off, and 2: I got the flu about two weeks ago so I spent several days sitting here in front of my computer with not enough energy to play video games so I watched a bunch of movies. Movies I had kinda-sorta earmarked for DVRfest. So... in the end, this very round number 20th anniversary festival has been hobbled to the normal length if not a little shorter since I didn't even take Veteran's Day off... with any luck, next year I can do it up. When this site turns 21... or 22 or 23... one of these years I will really do it up. This year would've been nice but what are you gonna do, ya know? I still have a few things lined up of course so it won't be as casual as a few years have been, but also since We've now hit 20 years I figured it was time to lift the already-super-light rules a bit... so I'm starting off the festival this year with a double feature of movies that I've seen before. Gasp! What's that you say? We all know the rule is I am only allowed to re-watch one movie per year! The Spirit of the fest is to catch up on movies that I've been meaning to watch, clear out the titular DVR (which has long been replaced with my hard drive and multiple text files filled with lists of movies available on random streaming sites), so what am I doing re-watching stuff? Well, it's my festival so I get to do what I want. Part of the purpose for this site was to document how my feelings about a movie evolve or change on repeat viewings so I do feel like it still somewhat applies. And I don't really re-watch movies that much anymore which I miss. In the heyday of my movie-watching hobby, I'd watch a movie in the theater, again when I bought the DVD, kinda-sorta again when I listened to the commentary, and maybe again again if I picked up the Blu-Ray. Nowadays, even movies I love I only see once, unless it's some random craving like Goodfellas or Zodiac. Damn... I could watch Zodiac again right now. Hmm... no, no, can't get side-tracked. No, we're starting with Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood. I've only seen this once in theaters with a group. I read and disliked the novelization, I've heard Quentin talk about it ad nauseum on random podcasts, and even his own podcast he dedicated two fake episodes to the death of Rick Dalton and watching his movies. I was keen to see it again because the first viewing has this massive weight of destiny with the story... I basically spent the whole movie waiting for the inevitable events of the end. So seeing it again, knowing the plot, I suspected any suspense or tension around expected real life events would be traded out for reveling in late-60s Hollywood and just hanging out with Rick and Cliff. I found that to be mostly true. Some sequences like Spahn Ranch and shooting Lancer deflate rather quickly when you know how they resolve, but all the driving shots and movie / show inserts and format changes are more fun this time around. Also the ending is a real hoot so it almost has an opposite effect of you're looking forward to the ending rather than dreading it. Stuff that's become memes like Rick Dalton pointing at the television with a beer in his hand is more fun the second time around, hearing their chatter while we all watch Dalton's episode of The FBI together. Plus Austin Butler and Sydney Sweeney were in Charlie's Kids! I didn't know who either person was in 2019. Great music but I feel like the real star of the soundtrack are the radio ads and commercials they lay in. Even the end credits has Batman and Robin Adam West and Burt Ward doing a promo spot for a local radio station. That kind of stuff puts you in the era just as much as the vintage decorations on Hollywood Boulevard and the Van Nuys Drive-In (I still can't remember if that's the drive-in we went to when I was a kid or not. I think most of my drive-in excursions were when I lived in Boulder but I do remember going a couple times in LA as well but have no clue which. Anyway, the scenery is arguably the most effective element of the movie. The short montage of neon lights turning on as evening turns to night is perfect. I was not alive in the late 60s but much of that stuff was still around in the early 80s. It wasn't on Hollywood Boulevard but I remember us driving by a Pussycat Theater all the time in the valley. I never went to Musso & Frank but my family did go to Lawry's Prime Rib so I remember seeing similar signage the one time I was allowed to go. So that stuff really did it for me. It's not quite showing Cupid's Hot Dogs like Licorice Pizza did, but they are sister films in many ways. I did still enjoy myself. It did have a bit of a hang-out vibe... not as potent as Dazed and Confused but still there. Mostly you can tell so evidently how much Quentin loves movies and television and show business in general. Ok next up, another movie that's crazy that I've only seen once. |
| 08.13.21 | Internet | Coming off the novelization... it did help with the context of the Lancer show that they were shooting (I think my first viewing I just took all that stuff as random 60s TV western type whatnot and didn't put together that Timothy Olyphant and Luke Perry were supposed to be brothers. And it made explicit a few things that I liked how the movie didn't answer (like Cliff's wife, the half-billboard painting in Rick's driveway, the dog's attack training) but otherwise the book omits pretty much the entire third act, only mentioning it in passing. So odd considering how well the movie works. But i suppose the greatest strength of the movie is its atmosphere and how well they dressed the town as era-appropriate. The constant radio soundtrack and all the driving and these floating crane shots floating above everyone really make you feel like you're glimpsing LA how it was. I was actually wondering if I'd like it less this time considering my experience with the book but still enjoyed it quite a bit. Those performances, man... such juicy roles for both Leo and Pitt. All the other roles are pretty minimal but those two really get to do some stuff. |
| 07.27.19 | Galaxy Highland | I saw a movie! In a theater! it's my birthday! I'm old! I really liked this. For a movie lover, I feel like there's no working director out there who likes to show off his love of movies more than Tarantino. This one is just a buffet of cinematic delights. He got to make fake american western tv shows, euro-crime chase scenes, classic hollywood hullabaloo, a bevvy of amazing posters for fake films, and a bunch more. Plus he gets to make actual Hollywood into the nostalgia-soaked version of his dreams and drive around in it all day and night to 70 songs of the period... it all looks like it was the fantasy-fulfillment of a film geek lifetime. Going in, i had zero clue of the story, and I was pleasantly surprised there. Leo was fantastic, you want to hang out with Brad Pitt every day, Margot Robbie got more screen time than I thought, and pretty much everyone else was in it less than I thought they'd be. I guess with that much room for very small roles, they got to pad out the cast list with all this crazy talent and still have a movie pretty much centered on two dudes hanging out. The ending is pretty good too. so yeah... another great one I think. And it's not so heavy that I'd be hesitant to watch it again. soon. |
