'Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’ Tarantino’s best film yet

           Director Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once upon a Time…in Hollywood is arguably the best film of his illustrious career. The film centers on actor Rick Dalton (portrayed by Academy Award winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio), and his best friend and stuntman, Cliff Booth (Portrayed by Academy Award nominee Brad Pitt) as they navigate their way through the last years of Hollywood’s Golden Age as aging performers, and dealing with rejections, and setbacks.

            The acting in this film is remarkable. DiCaprio and Pitt are fantastic together. DiCaprio truly shines as a once successful TV actor that is consistently type cast as a villainous cowboy who struggles with the fact that his career is starting to decline. He’s funny and outlandish at times. But, when his character dives into a heavy dramatic scene, DiCaprio turns it on all the way. There is one scene where his performance is absolutely outstanding, his character Rick Dalton is playing this evil cowboy holding a young girl hostage, the audience is completely engulfed into his poignant role and into this weird cowboy flick, and when the scene cuts, the girl whispers into his ear, “That was the best acting I have ever seen in my whole life” and DiCaprio begins to get emotional, and exhibits how powerful he can carry the viewers into this incredible fantasy world the actor Rick Dalton created, but also the journey real life actor DiCaprio guides us on. Pitt was just as equally amazing in his role as a down and out stuntman, Cliff Booth. He’s also showing the audience his lighter side. He’s likable, funny and somewhat eccentric. His role was mostly on one level; as opposed to DiCaprio’s roller coaster of a part, but since Pitt hasn’t done much in the past few years’ performance wise, this was the perfect role for him to make this his comeback to the acting scene. There are tons of other noteworthy performances, such as Al Pacino who plays a casting agent that begs Rick to come to Italy and shoot spaghetti westerns, or Margot Robbie’s beautiful portrayal of the late actor Sharon Tate. Robbie has almost no lines, but she portrays Tate as this mesmerizing, charming beauty that is a captivating delight to watch.

            Tarantino is known for his unique writing and directing style. This film is unlike his previous eight cult classics. This film is not overly gory or graphic. This film is purely a refreshing Hollywood fairy tale revealing Tarantino’s vivid imagination, love and knowledge of films, and his retelling of a real life grueling story and turning it into his own charming fantasy. The cinematography is astounding. Everything about this film is cultivated into possibly Tarantino’s greatest work. His vision was flawless, his craft was perfected and his casting was impeccable.

            Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is highly recommended to anyone that enjoys Tarantino’s films, but is interested in seeing his work in a new light. Also to anyone that enjoys light comedic humor, very little action, fantastic character development with a quirky story line that reminisces that old Hollywood flair. Also, to anyone that is tired of seeing remake after remake, Tarantino’s Hollywood is invigorating and breathes new life into the theater. It’s original, thought-provoking and hopeful, and audiences everywhere should crave for more directors and writers to aspire to that caliber, and offer innovative narratives to raise that mediocre bar to new heights.