Film Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

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    • Seen Mar 14, 2025
    So Quentin Tarantino's 9th movie is out, and in my opinion it's pretty great! A lot of his hallmarks, great setup and a satisfying payoff. Definitely one of my favourite movies ever now, it's up there just under Pulp Fiction (my favourite movie of all time)

    Has anyone seen this movie? What did you think?
     
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    Actually one of his worst movies lmao
    It felt like an excuse for actors to say they worked with Tarantino rather than, like, actually achieving anything - it feels like a rush to get to his final film and be done with making movies. Even leaving the not-so-subtle creepy sexual politics bleeding in (or rather, being an essential part of the process) from his personal life aside, this read like QT achieving maximum midlife crisis mode. The Bruce Lee stuff was particularly weird, as it came across as QT needing to prove something that no one needed to hear. Nearly three hours of him trying to prove that he's still got it and that he's so smart for knowing all this pop culture stuff, ultimately resulting in a meandering and unsatisfying movie, with the ending of Inglourious Basterds reworked into the finale upon a realisation that toe shots, Sad Leo and wanting to fuck Brad Pitt do not a movie make.

    However, there was a nice soundtrack (nothing compared to his previous flicks, tho) and so I imagine that this movie, one seemingly made just to see whether fanboys would continue to jerk off to him without criticism, will remain an adored piece of 2019's cinema.
     
    That's a fair opinion to have, but I couldn't disagree more. It absolutely was QT's mid life crisis movie - but that was the point, no? I thought that was exactly what the movie was meant to be about. The maturity with which it handled a lot of its themes has been overlooked because of the
    Spoiler:
    but ultimately I enjoyed the movie a lot the first time. Dialogue was stunningly captivating as usual and the cinematography was great. The soundtrack too, as you mentioned.

    That said, Once Upon a Time is not flawless. There were several slightly unnecessary scenes and a few glaring inconsistencies / inaccuracies that I want to believe are on purpose and hold some deeper meaning, but are most likely just oversights. But hey, if you didn't enjoy the movie, you didn't enjoy it.
     
    While it wasn't his best movie, it was rather entertaining. I don't know how to actually rate it since most of Tarantino's films are unique but I'd definately put it above Deathproof, which is said to be his worst film to date, and Hateful Eight which was decent but, to me, it kinda felt like
    Spoiler:

    Anyway, it was very captivating and got a lot of things right for me, especially the setting of the tone. The soundtrack was stellar and fitted perfectly with the film's imagery.
    As for the Bruce Lee controversy that sprung up, I do believe that his portrayal was far-fetched but in my opinion it's a fictional story and isn't meant to be historically accurate.
     
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