Of course, what kind of list of movies would this be without including a Tarintino film? Before making this list I had watched a grand total of zero Tarintino films which was always quite embarrassing. There were always endless Pulp Fiction references that I would always smile and nod to but could never understand. When I created my list back in April of last year, Pulp Fiction was probably the first one that I decided to watch and later that week I watched both volumes of Kill Bill and I will say that I definitely was not disappointed by Tarintino’s work. All of the hype I thought was worth it. I was greatly entertained during the films but after I continued to think about the plots and characters for months after. Genuinely I thought they were brilliant. I was really excited to see this movie but I was also scared because I had no knowledge of Hollywood history but I do really like the setting being 1960’s Hollywood. I was also excited because Leonardo DiCaprio is starring and I mean…
I would like to also apologize in the beginning, I am not consistent in how I refer to characters. Some I call by the actual character’s name, but for a lot, I refer to them as their actor’s name just because it comes to mind quickly for me. I also am very sorry, this review is INCREDIBLY longer than most of my other ones but I do have a lot of thoughts on this movie and granted it was also a very long movie so there is a lot to discuss.
When I first sat down to watch this I saw the time was TWO HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES. All I could think was “wow how can something be interesting for one hundred and sixty-one minutes?” Being a Tarintino film I told myself it will be okay and quite frankly, my original skepticism was not wrong. I did find a lot of the film to be a little boring and I felt that a lot of scenes lacked meaning and did not contribute much to the overall direction of the plot. I believe that this film could have easily cut out at least forty minutes and still come to the same conclusion safely. I understand this was a creative decision to emulate real-life but so much felt unnecessary and contributed little.
It is fairly well known that Tarantino has a foot fetish and after watching this it was really obvious. There were so many scenes that feet were included and they didn’t need to be. The scene of Margot Robbie in the movie theater wasn’t the worst but still, the feet were a little unnecessary and it was really obvious that it was trying to make a point and it didn’t come across as casual like how the character was supposed to come off (I think ????). Her feet were also dirty, despite wearing boots all day which just further contributes to the foot fetish thing. The other seat with Pussycat and Brad Pitt’s character in the car and Pussycat rests her feet on the dashboard, rubbing against the window. Yea. This one was particularly uncomfortable and the energy was also uncomfortably sexual as well (the conversation also contributed to the sexual energy as well). I didn’t really like those scenes for the reason that most female characters were objectified and/or sexualized. Arguably the two biggest roles for females in the movie, Sharon Tate and Pussycat, are incredibly sexualized throughout the film and their sexuality is almost purely what drives their characters throughout the story(Not just through feet). Much of Robbie’s role in this movie revolves around the fact that she is beautiful and there is little getting to know her character as an actual person. The only character trait that I can think of is that she is giggly(?) which does not really show that much depth. I can’t speak for all Tarantino films, but in the two (three? I don’t know how to count Kill Bill) that I saw, the female characters, while being beautiful and sometimes sexualized, there is also more opportunity to get to know the characters as people and their beauty is another quality on top of the person that they are. After watching the movie, there is little I can say about Margot Robbie’s character other than that she was beautiful. This movie definitely saw females from the male gaze.
Not only was the movie obviously seen from the perspective of a male, it was also a movie meant for Hollywood, a complaint that was also made for La La Land. In my opinion, I did enjoy this movie better than La La Land. I think they both attempted for an old Hollywood feel but in different ways and if I am being honest, I think this one did a better job and felt more realistic to an extent, whereas La La Land kind of presented Hollywood to be this Disneyland movie fantasy.
The ending of this movie was definitely the best. I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed with the first two hours of the movie but it REALLY picks up. Since the end was the best part, I would like to talk about why I liked it so this next paragraph does have ~spoilers~ just a warning. So, I was aware of the murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson family, so that is what I expected to happen. I am aware that Tarantino is known for twisting historical events but I haven’t seen any of his movies where he does that, therefore I still didn’t really expect that. I was really expecting Tex and his followers when they decided to kill everyone to murder Sharon Tate but instead, there was an awesome fight scene. I loved the little foreshadowing places earlier in the movie that predict how DiCaprio and Pitt fight off the Manson family, like the flamethrower and the dog. Oh also! When the Manson family was in the house and DiCaprio was in the pool I really thought he was going to die in the water in proper DiCaprio fashion, but the flamethrower was much nicer. I also really like how this wraps up the title of the film. The murder of Sharon Tate was avoided, giving the story a fairytale ending. Going back to La La Land, while that gave a fantasy feel of Hollywood, this movie gave that fairytale ending. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood>La La Land
I do appreciate how well made this movie was and the casting I thought was really good. I enjoyed the relationship between Pitt and DiCaprio. I really liked the ending and how it pulls together everything. I think aesthetically, besides the feet, that it was very pleasing. In conclusion, I give a 7.5/10. I think it was really good and interesting looking back at it, but a lot of scenes were fairly dull and drawn out. I found the sexualization of female characters to be uncomfortable which I think is an issue for a lot of movies but it made me feel awkward specifically with this movie.
images:
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