MRM: Once Upon a Time...a story by Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino, one of the biggest names in Hollywood known for his signature film style. They bend the rules, are filled with bright color, music, and always include what some consider too much blood and violence.

His latest film? Well, it may be a little toned down from his past few films...until the very end that is.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is Tarantino's latest film based on the true events of the Charles Manson murders of Sharon Tate and crew, except...not really. The story is twisted to become just that, a story. A retelling that focuses instead on aging actor Rick Dalton played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his stunt double Cliff (Brad Pitt).

The film jumps between the lives of all three. Sharon's life as a wife in Hollywood enjoying her time as a growing film star, the struggle of Dalton realizing he's becoming old in an industry that wants new, and Cliff, a stunt double who's main subject is getting less work (and thus, so is he).

The editing is great, jumping between all three people with quick jumps that can be jarring but are also clearly a signature style point of the film. Its also frequently used to show time by cutting the scenes apart mid-sentence or character's action to the next one, done cunningly in a comedic way.

And the camera use. Many times Tarantino keeps the camera trained on a shot that goes slightly too long, as if to make us think, to absorb, or just really notice what it is going on in the scene. The camera use and movement in general seems more subdued than his recent films, without as many fast, active camera movements (though there are two classic Tarantino whip pans). Instead, Tarantino seems to focus on what is a more complex, denser storyline involving two, slightly three, main characters to tell the story rather than use a lot of the camera and color to help tell it.

The music of course, has to be mentioned. Tarantino is interesting in Hollywood as he is one of the few to exclusively work/ help with the music choices. My observation coming out of the theater is that he did seem to stick to songs from the time period and played many over the radio, be it a player or in a car. Apart from the fun pop-y radio songs, there are some more orchestral pieces played throughout. Tarantino seems to place these to amp up the mood of the action on scene, though they sounded more cartoony than well known orchestral pieces like Mozart, Bach, or even famous film scores (almost as if mocking the traditional way of orchestrating films). Music in Tarantino's film require a study, actual research, to be able to understand them, but without doing any of that yet, it still seems like this one follows the trend of his past films, with each piece having a deeper meaning to amp up the scene.

But if you think you get away from the gore and blood in this one just you wait. The end scene where Manson's followers commit the murder, yeah, it makes up for a lack of blood in the entire film. If you don't like violence, I would be hesitant to recommend it to you, at least the two twenty minutes or so.

All in all Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is still a classic Tarantino film with its violence, noticeable eclectic music choices, and camera techniques. It doesn't beat some of his other films in my mind but I wouldn't absolutely skip over it if it's playing on tv in the future.

Overall Rating: B