My Cultural Diet

Quentin Tarantino’s ninth and penultimate film is a rambling reimagining of one of Hollywood’s darkest chapters, the murder of Sharon Tate by acolytes of Charles Manson. The cast is the usual star-studded affair, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt leading the way as a washed up cowboy actor and his stuntman/best friend trying to find new relevance in Tinsel Town circa 1969. The film has the usual referential dialog you’d expect from Tarantino, though my favorite bits were when DiCaprio and Pitt’s characters watch TV together and discuss the work they’ve done, or when DiCaprio’s struggling actor seeks to remake himself as a cinematic villain. Upon my first viewing, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has an almost random quality to it as we wait for the inevitable carnage and bloodshed that’s also a Tarantino mainstay. (On that point, the film fully delivers, and this “Stuntwomen React” video offers some cool behind-the-scenes info about the film’s climax.) While I suspect that subsequent viewings will reveal more layers, I’m sticking with a lower rating for now.

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