Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

To be in the room when Tarantino realized hippies don’t wear shoes. Actually I don’t want to be in that room. The last act is the most cathartic experience.

Sometimes I can forgive an artist for creating a composite of their Greatest Hits to make a new work. Tarantino does some of that here, with a film that touches on pop culture, American history, Los Angeles, westerns, war heroes, defeating fascists, and watching enjoyable characters talk and live their lives. This is also his warmest movie yet (especially with his two best leads since Jules & Vincent). But it really ramps up with that resolution--as Pitt does his finest work yet.

Perhaps Tarantino's most formally, symbolically, and narratively daring work since Pulp Fiction. Yes, it's often indulgent and overlong, but when your central theme is the retreat into (and conflation of) fantasy and reality, that's ok. Film rule: if you see it, it happened. So, the ending is Tarantino affirming, through his reality (movies!), that a few whacked-out hippies did not destroy the idyll of filmdom: It lives on. There's a reason why Cielo translates to Heaven.

My mom's shoe fell off in the middle of the movie and she had to scramble to put it back on before Tarantino cast her in his next picture.

As I wasn't really aware of Sharon Tate's history, the end felt a bit off. So yeah, in its right context, the viewing would've been much more impactful. But despite me being a philistine there was a lot here to dig into. Individual scenes are wonderful/tense, acting's excellent, everything just oozes atmosphere and authenticity, and ye gods, that action climax. Tarantino wallowing in movie nostalgia is our gain, if you ask me. (You probably shouldn't.)