Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

(MA15+) ★★★★

Director: Quentin Tarantino.

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Austin Butler, Mike Moh, Al Pacino.

"I loved you in Johnny Suede."

Welcome to Tarantino's weirdest film yet. It's easily his most mystifying work since Pulp Fiction, his least accessible piece to date, and the most self-indulgent movie of his career (which is saying something for Tarantino).

Admittedly, upon leaving the cinema it felt like QT had missed his mark - that it was a bloated, plotless mess, more caught up in reproducing a lost era of cinema than telling a ripping yarn. But the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced his aim is true.

It's long, yes - too long - but it's surprising, hilarious, and unlike anything else in his catalogue. Yet it's also definitely, distinctively, decidedly Tarantino. It will leave a lot of people cold, but that has always been Tarantino's thing - his idiosyncrasies have never been to all tastes, but here he really serves up something that many will find unpalatable, while others will savour for days.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is QT's ode to the final days of Hollywood's golden age; an era that he posits ended when a bunch of Charles Manson's minions committed the so-called Tate Murders in August 1969.

As the film counts down to that bloody full stop, we meet actor Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stuntman/buddy Cliff Booth (Pitt). Rick's star is fading, making him a perennial guest star on TV shows while he hopes and waits for a career revival. Meanwhile Cliff fills his days doing odd jobs for Rick and driving around Los Angeles. It's during one of these drives that he meets Pussycat (Qualley), who is a member of the "Manson Family".

And living next door to Rick is Sharon Tate (Robbie) - a fun-loving actress whose star is rising.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is Tarantino's homage to the twilight of Tinsel Town's halcyon days, and he mirrors this decline in Rick Dalton's career. The role is a gift for DiCaprio, who gets to give some truly cheesy performances, as well as have an on-set meltdown, in between delivering some quite powerful and masterful moments.

DiCaprio gets Pitt to bounce off, and they make for a great pairing that keeps the film moving when it doesn't feel like anything is actually happening. While Rick is a bundle of flaws, fears and inadequacies, his ol' buddy Cliff is always there to reassure him. Cliff's own dark past is teased and tantalised, partly as a way to build the character, but its frustrating. Subject matter aside, Pitt makes Cliff a great mix of gumshoe and goon - an affable and easygoing stuntman from an era of L.A. that's about to wink out of existence, and he doesn't seem to mind.

Robbie's Tate is frustratingly underwritten, but in the context of the wider film, it works. She is the bubbly, oblivious flower child enjoying the best that Hollywood has to offer in this era.

The character focus makes the film feel plotless and meandering. It's first act is painfully slow, while the middle segments which follow Sharon, Rick and Cliff individually are long but more interesting. Then the finale hits and all bets are off. Surprises abound, gears are shifted, and you won't know what hit you. It's impossible to talk about it thoroughly and how much it all means without spoilers, but this isn't that kind of review. All that can be said is that Tarantino's choices for the ending will have you thinking, speculating and wondering for days to come.

It's this last half hour that really changes everything. Prior to that, the film felt like some great performances played out in a well-captured era, with the production design, radio ads, costumes, and soundtrack all serving to evoke the movie's time capsule vibe. But it seemed like little more than that.

But there's an exhilarating and bizarre boldness to the ending that is not only oddly hilarious, but hugely entertaining, like a pay off for the previous slowness. It also fits together so many pieces of the puzzle, helping to fully realise the picture QT was trying to paint. Some sections still feel overpadded, and it could easily be half an hour shorter, even in light of his magnificent outro, but it makes the journey worthwhile.

Like many Tarantino films, this bears re-watching, study and analysis. It's hard to tell where this fits in his oeuvre, but it's a fascinatingly strange movie from an incomparable artist.