2019 Tarantino movie
Rating: 15/20 (Dylan: 15/20)
Plot: An aging cowboy actor and his stunt double friend maneuver through the golden light of 1969 Los Angeles while Sharon Tate dances through what might be the final months she's allowed to glow.
In Quentin Tarantino's utopic vision of golden Hollywood, there's not a single black person while women are either villains or nearly-mute symbols. That might be an issue. Another issue I may not be the right person to discuss: the depiction of Bruce Lee, one that I find at the very least disrespectful. Finally, I think I should have a problem with how right-wing this thing is. It's very anti-hippie/anti-counterculture. Tarantino even takes a shot at poor Dennis Hopper!
For the first twenty minutes of this, I was really worried. There were some odd editing choices, narrative threads lacked flow, and it was clear that Tarantino cared less about telling a good story than indulging in all these period details. The period details are especially impressive. The movie's bathed in all these visual and aural details, every single bit of screen bathed with everything from cereal boxes to movie posters that makes this a real time capsule of a movie. The lack of narrative propulsion's easy to forgive because the character development of the three leads is so good, very likely a trio of characters who each represent some part of Tarantino though that's something I'd like to put more thought into before throwing down any actual ideas. And the editing? I'm still not sure about some cuts during an early scene with Pacino, the perspective bouncing around willy-nilly.
Time's spent enjoying these characters, making it easy to know what two of them are all about. Pitt's Booth is more of an enigma, though everything Pitt does makes this a performance that has to be considered iconic. Look no further than the scene where he effortlessly and boyishly hops on the roof of a house and takes off his shirt if you want proof of that. Pitt gets a moment to shine in a flashback with the aforementioned Bruce Lee, showing a character with a propensity for violence whose own poor decisions have led to a life of eating cheap macaroni and cheese in a squalid trailer.
Margot Robbie, as somebody at Cannes suggested, really doesn't have a lot to say, but I agree with Tarantino that the point was missing. Her effervescence speaks louder than words in this one. She gets a chance to be alive with some dance moves, the sweetest smile that you'll ever see, and the scene partially shown in the movie's trailer where she enjoys watching herself on the big screen. I walked out of the theater thinking she was more of a symbol than an actual human being and questioning Tarantino's use of her story for whatever metaphor he might be assembling here, but I think I probably missed the point, too. Robbie's Tate is so human and so alive, and it's a beautiful thing.
Leo DiCaprio is flashier and at times sillier, and I think it's probably easy to miss how much range his performance has. He gets to show off in another scene partially seen in the movie's trailer--his work in the filming of an episode of a television show. That sequence has him nailing his villainous character in the episode being filmed, showing indecisiveness when not on set, having a meltdown where he suggests that failure might even lead to suicide, reflects on his career in a conversation with a little girl, and weeping tears of proud joy when he gets some confirmation that he's done something really good. It's great stuff.
The rapport with DiCaprio and Pitt as this friendship is developed is easy to love. It's a friendship where the audience is missing all this context, all these past adventures the characters have been on, but it doesn't matter because with what these actors are throwing down, you just get it.
Mostly, this just seems to exist so that Tarantino can put stuff on the screen that he would like to see and that he thinks likeminded folks would like to see. Reproductions of TV westerns and spy shows, visual references to the spaghetti westerns he loves, lots of shots of characters just driving around this idyllic setting, an extended sequence where Pitt's character visits the old Western set where the Manson family resides that is packed with great tension. With Tarantino, you know a few things going in. The movie will sprawl, the movie will have all kinds of great songs in it, and there will be lots of cool. This is a very cool movie, a dreamy breeze of a movie, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again and liking it a little more without going in with the expectations that I had.
Right now, it's 8 of 9 on any favorite Tarantino movie list I made. That's a solid 8 movies though!
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