Once upon a time in Hollywood, a brash young kid called Quentin Tarantino delivered an electric two step uppercut with Reservoir Dogs and a knockout blow with Pulp Fiction, establishing a career that has survived nine pictures.
His latest, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, really does show what an exquisite film maker Quentin is, an audacious and bombastic craftsman, a film lover who is able to share his ardour and passion with a wide picture loving public.
Set in 1969, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD charts imagined figures within the geographical and chronological reality of the slaying of Sharon Tate and others by crazed cultists of the Manson Family.
The spectre of the massacre casts a suspenseful pall over the production, an eerie veneer over an ebullient canvas.
Tarantino’s trademark rampant cinephilia comes to the forefront here, as ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD looks at the art, trade and craft of motion picture production fifty years ago, peppered with cultural references that give gravitas, humour and subtextual richness.
The dangerous power of movies, the seductive aspect of the art form, both for practitioners and audiences alike is palpable in every frame of this film.
The focus is the two leading men, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth, the former an actor, the latter his stunt double and all round gofer. Their very casting is a master stroke, two bona fide movie stars of the modern age headlining a film about the end of an era.
The Australian component is rich – Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, Nicholas Hammond as Sam Wannamaker, and Damon Herriman as Charles Manson. And is that a fleeting shot of Rod Taylor, maybe from an outtake of Inglorious Basterds?
Tarantino is one of those rare film makers who has earned the right to be called an auteur – a gifted writer, a wizz in the cutting room, a compiler of music, and a master of teasing out superb performances from his actors.
In ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD he directs Al Pacino as agent Marvin Schwarz with Brenda Vaccaro as his wife.
Damien Lewis as Steve McQueen in a drop dead jaw dropping turn.
Dakota Fanning as Squeaky Fromme, Clu Guluger, staple of the golden age of American television as a bookstore proprietor Sharon goes to buy a copy of Tess of the D’Ubervilles for Roman Polanski.
The late Luke Perry as a TV actor, likewise Timothy Olyphant and Michael Madsen.
Kurt Russell and Zoe Bell as Randy and Janet, a second unit stunt team.
Bruce Dern as George Spahn, Mike Moh as Bruce Lee and Julia Butters as a young actress in a magic melting moment with Di Caprio.
It is an embarrassment of acting riches.
Cinematographer Robert Richardson, already a triple Oscar winner could make it a quartet with Quentin’s picture.
Costume Designer Arianne Phillips, nominated twice before maybe third time lucky here, and Production designer Barbara Ling certainly deserves a nomination for her richly detailed work.
The title is a wink and a nod to two great Sergio Leone pictures, Once Upon A Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America, and like those films delivers am awesome, sprawling saga.