Once Upon a Time In Hollywood Review: Tarantino's latest is a radiant Hollywood fable

Quentin Taranti has, for a while w, been reminding us what’s so great about movies — or at least, what he thinks is so great about m. He’s me an old-fashioned double-feature ('Death Proof,' of 'Grindhouse'), resurrected wide-screen format of 70mm Ultra Panavision (' Hateful Eight') and generally presided as pre-eminent B-movie evangelist for a generation. power and thrill of exploitation movies, he has earnestly espoused, can conquer all evils — or at least slavery ('Django Unchained') and Nazis ('Inglourious Basterds').

'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood' is Taranti’s most affectionate and poignant ode

But 'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood,' set in 1969 Los Angeles, is Taranti’s most affectionate and poignant ode yet to movie business. It’s a breezy, woozy Hollywood fable that luxuriates in simple pleasures of movies and colorful swirl of Dream Factory’s backlot. Some pleasures are stalgic, and some — like driving down Sunset Boulevard or martinis at Musso & Frank — is everlasting.

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Here, movie love feels contagious, like something in air. In one of film’s best scenes, Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate explains at a ater’s ticket office that she’s in movie, newly released caper “ Wrecking Crew,” (“I’m klutz!” she says cheerfully). Inside, she giggles with delight at seeing herself on big screen, giddily mimicking her character’s martial-arts moves and watching to see if audience laughs at one of her lines. (y do.)

Taranti has lowered his typically feverish temperature

pleasures in 'Once Upon a Time' are also ours. Taranti has lowered his typically feverish temperature to a warming simmer, bathing us in golden California light and movie-star glow of his leing men, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Br Pitt. y spend copious amounts of time driving through Hollywood Hills in a creamy Coupe de Ville, riding along like Butch and Sundance and just as nice to look at.

DiCaprio is Rick Dalton, a Burt Reylds- actor of TV Westerns (his claim to fame is ’50s hit “Bounty Law”) whose career is stalling. Pitt is Cliff Booth, his stunt double and best friend, a war veteran with a b reputation but a friendly, relaxed manner. y have a natural, easy rapport, with Booth doubling as a drinking buddy and support system for Dalton, who’s increasingly anxious about his cast future. (Al Paci, as his nt, urges him to he to Italy for a spaghetti Western.)

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In DiCaprio’s finest sequence, he chats between takes on a Western called “Lancer” with a frightfully serious Method Acting 8-year-old co-star (Julia Butters) before forgetting his lines. After about of self-loathing in his trailer, he returns and nails scene. DiCaprio, a preternaturally self-possessed actor himself, captures whole arc beautifully.

It’s t that 'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood' doesn’t revolve around that grisly trdy

When word got out that Taranti’s latest film would take place around Manson murders, it was easy to wonder what genre mayhem director would bring to this epochal moment. We kw what carn resulted when Zed was de, so what did Taranti have in store for demise of ’60s?

It’s t that 'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood' doesn’t revolve around that grisly trdy. It looms always in background, and eventually in foreground, too, after Booth picks up a hitchhiker (Margaret Qualley) who les him to Manson compound at Spahn Ranch, former production site of TV and film Westerns where Manson’s mostly female acolytes emerge and Booth goes to check on owner, an old friend, George Spahn (Bruce Dern). Dalton and Booth are fictional concoctions surrounded by real people, including ir neighbors: Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha).

Teetering intriguingly between dream and reality

By film’s climax, blood will spill and movie-me historical revisionism will have its day. But I suspect a lot of Taranti fans will be taken by surprise at film’s leisurely pace, set more to a (and this a good thing) “Jackie Brown” speed. As in that film, Taranti isn’t purely living in an over--top movie fantasy world, but one teetering intriguingly between dream and reality. dialogue and action have slowed down eugh to allow a little wistfulness and melancholy to creep in.

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At times, his path is a little wayward and prone to digressions. Taranti feels perilously close to simply turning his movie into several of Dalton’s, so er is he (like Coens were in “Hail, Caesar!”) to lovingly opt those period styles. But usually, detours are hard to resist. In one, Booth ends up in a fight with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) on set of “ Green Hornet.”

chemistry between Br Pitt and DiCaprio is a delight

And if you’re going to make a movie that celebrates what’s grand about Hollywood, it helps to have Br Pitt in it. chemistry between him and DiCaprio, toger for first time, is a delight; I would glly watch m drive around lacquered, golden-hour Los Angeles, with cinematographer Robert Richardson trailing m, for longer than alrey lengthy running time of “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.”

Pitt, in particular, appears so utterly self-possessed. It’s a swaggering gre-A movie star performance in a movie that celebrates all that movie stars can accomplish — which, for Taranti, is anything. That youthful, exuberant Tate was robbed of that potential is one of wrongs Taranti is righting here. But his fairy tale also swells with an even larger and optimistic vision. For today’s doomsayers of movies, which are seen by some as a less potent art form, 'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood' imagines an apocalypse denied. Tate and movies will live forever.

'Once Upon a Time In Hollywood,' a Sony Pictures release, is rated R by Motion Picture Association of America for langu throughout, some strong graphic violence, drug use, and sexual references. Running time: 161 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.