Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood

Spoiler-free!

It boggles my mind that this film came from Quentin Tarantino. With his work so far, I've only been able to find respect, and tidbits of enjoyment as I watched the masterfully crafted scenes -- featuring characters I didn't particularly care about, doing things that I didn't really understand. I wouldn't say there's absolutely no heart or meaning to any of them, but with all that glorious violence and excessive swearing that stylishly coats the picture in distraction, "heartfelt" is certainly not the first quality that enters my head when this filmmaker's name is mentioned. Until today.

I loved how in the filming scenes, the camera becomes the in-movie scene's camera as well. The crew disappears until the scene cuts, just as it should. The magic of movies is portrayed in this movie -- but there's cynicism too.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood follows the lives of Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), an actor who was a big time hit in the 50's with a cowboy TV show, and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), Rick's long-time friend and stunt double. Now Rick does guest appearances as villains and Cliff drives him around. Also, Rick just so happens to live right next door to Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) who is doomed to be murdered by cultist hippies. The film watches with a keen eye as they navigate Hollywood in 1969, imparting a surprising amount of insight and honesty onto the audience as it goes.

No movie can exist these days without controversy. This one has more than a few, and my two cents on the overall subject is that it's all contrived. If you don't like the way any number of real-life characters are portrayed in this film, there's no demand for you to believe or trust that characterization. This movie has a perspective and is honest about that. It's hard to say what is true, especially when fiction and reality are so blurred together as they are here; the point isn't that what the film shows us is true or really happened (most of it didn't) but it uses our knowledge of history to build a compelling, fictional narrative and story.

Great era music. And so much of it! Also, Robbie is a wonder of physical acting in this. She portrays so much, and becomes absolutely mythical. People complaining she doesn't have as many lines as the men have no concept of the power of silence.

At the heart of the story is Cliff -- an admirable guy who experiences the Hollywood film business as an impartial outsider. He lives in a trailer behind a drive-in theater with his dog, and doesn't get to do what he loves anymore -- stunt work -- so he putters around, acting as chauffeur for Rick and doing odd jobs for him, reminiscing about the days when he could show up the stuck-up elite, and generally being an all-around unappreciated hero. While Rick pretends to be a hard-boiled cowboy, Cliff is off actually being one; bringing a little more justice to the world with practiced control and a level head.

As a result, this movie succeeds in being my favorite effort of Tarantino's and my favorite role of Pitt's. I'll readily admit that I've never been a super-fan of either, but I've never been closer than I am now. The unnoticed hero is a trope that wins with me every time, and this movie pulls it off in spectacular fashion and doesn't shove it in your face; appropriately, it lets the actions of its characters speak for themselves. The rest of the movie and characters do their jobs; whether to juxtapose the hero, drive the plot, create tension, or make a one-off statement, this movie brims with talent and they do a brilliant job.

It is 2 hours and 41 minutes; and not an inch too long. Stuffed full, but not rushed or bursting. The travelling scenes were great. Whether through city by car, or desert by horse, I like that it took the time to relish moments like those.

This movie worked on me. The effect it was crafted to have; the impact it was intended to make, landed solid and stuck. Even if it hadn't, Tarantino still has an ability to make good and artful films. Its humor was funny, its style infectious, and its scenes and structure had flow. It felt indulgent, but not snobbishly; lingering where it wanted to, but having a reason, and knowing how to balance. Of course it's good; few people would deny that Tarantino can put together a movie. My unexpectedly great admiration comes from the personal meaning within all the expected Hollywood trappings.

Once Upon a Time in... is a Tarantino flick through and through; and, perhaps, a little bit more. The highlight still comes from his patent rich and memorable characters, and wild and memorable scenes. It's as brazen, gory, and careless -- as always. But it's also oddly tender, understanding, and even regretful. It feels like a fairytale. As if someone wished, and then worked hard to make that wish come true, even if briefly. Technical prowess aside, the kind of movie that bares its soul in that way is a movie worthy of the name.

Io

Spoiler-free.

Surprise, surprise, Netflix has put out yet another low-key, small-cast, post-apocalyptic movie, that preaches about how we should take care of our planet. There was a time when the combined words of "low-key, small-cast, post-apocalypse" would send my sci-fi and deep character-loving side a thrill of excitement. Now it mostly just means a cheap way to get out a tired and impersonal message.

This one smacks interestingly of The Martian Knockoff, except in reverse. There's a scrappy scientist girl named Sam (Margaret Qualley) living in the ruins of Earth where the atmosphere is now toxic. Except on the top of her mountain home where the air is clean, she must always use an oxygen mask. She's alone -- more or less stranded while the rest of the earth has left and is living on a space station in orbit of Io, one of Jupiter's moons. They're looking for a planet to colonize, and her boyfriend writes her to join them. But she's too busy doing scientific experiments on bugs.

She looked so much like Rebecca Hall to me I was 100% sure she was her daughter or sister. Turns out she's actually Andie MacDowell's daughter. 

It feels like Martian lite. At one point she even has a bad storm blow through that destroys much of her hard work. She does science, but it's hardly explained and mostly fictional instead of science-y. She encounters a lot of problems to solve, but they're mostly introduced only so the audience can sweat for about two full seconds before she casually reveals that there's an easy way out after all. But they eke away from The Martian when Micah (Anthony Mackie) shows up. At first, I thought this would be a good thing. She wasn't bad alone, but Mackie's a reliable actor, right?

Well, I dunno, but he made it worse. At least before, it was interesting in that the only dialogue was her log updates or her voice-over reading letters to and from her space-boyfriend. The moment she spoke to Micah it seemed wrong, and from there a giant stall commenced, as everything had to be explained that was implied at the beginning. Their time hanging out lasts far too long before the final act begins and they have chemistry -- but in reverse. Like, every time they were in frame together I could practically see the magnetic fields that repelled them. Few weirder or more uncomfortable things have I seen on film.

So, so awkward.

Their time together is spent in revealing things about Sam that I'd already guessed and things about Micah that made him worryingly dislikable. Finally, The Martian template kicks in for one last dying breath as they need to travel a great distance in order to get on the last shuttle off Earth. But like the rest of this movie's obstacles, that one also goes nowhere fast. Eventually it settles into it's theme and moral -- that it's about one person trying to save the Earth. Reverse of The Martian again, which was about the whole Earth pulling together to save one person.

And that's where it just plain falls apart. I love a story that's about helping one person because there's intimacy juxtaposed with the grandeur that the life of one person is valuable enough to move the whole world; but one person slaving away to save something that has no soul -- as beautiful and valuable as it may be -- leaves me shrugging. I simply don't care. Perhaps if the film focused more on why she wanted the Earth to survive and made it more character-driven, but her desire seemed to be fueled by nothing, and then by a grasping connection to Greek mythology.

The scifi was SO low-key that they REALLY needed depth of character to make it work. And... they did try.

So besides the lack of an intimate character-study of fascinating and lovable characters, and being too low-key to include much science or science fiction, the movie does have a pleasantly relaxed tone throughout, and never dives into any of its aspects deeply enough to find anything to irritate me. Rather, it exists on a simple and elementary level to wax poetic in borrowed lines from the talented and knowledgeable, and to preach timidly on a subject none of us are strangers to. It is restricted by it's budget and knows it, but still can't find solid footing to work in on the small scale.

So, as far as low-key, small-cast, post-apocalyptic science fiction is concerned, you'd be far better of watching Sunshine, or The Road, or Young Ones; or even Z for Zachariah, but only in a pinch. None of those are on Netflix, you say? There's still last year's How it Ends to consider, with far better character work and eerie apocalyptic imagery. Io may be calm and unoffensive, but only because it's too meek and simplified to have anything of substance to say.