Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino's ninth film, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is a comedy drama set in 1969 Los Angeles and mainly focuses on the life and career of fictional struggling television actor Rick Dalton and his friendship with his stunt double Cliff Booth, played respectively by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The other story that the film tells is mostly random things that Sharon Tate does at the same time that Dalton and Booth are doing something important. While the two men that Tarantino focuses on are fictional, many of the people they meet, shows and movies they work on, and events they take part in are either real, exaggerated, or are references to the actual versions. Hollywood is nearly three hours and most of it is either filled with Dalton acting in shows as the villain, Cliff doing random odd jobs, or just showing what the characters do on a regular basis in their lives. As expected with Tarantino and his writing, the small attention to details and the quick jumps to reveal something major are the strongest aspects. While Margot Robbie gives a good performance as Tate, she doesn't do that much and much of what she does do doesn't advance the plot. Just like the last time Tarantino tackled a huge historical event, that being killing Hitler earlier in Inglourious Basterds, here he handles the murder of Tate and her friends by Charles Manson's followers. What he does, instead, makes this so far not as the usual Tarantino violence and turns it up in the last few minutes and it is so fun and glorious. Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is well written, provides amazing performances, and the look at an older Los Angeles is fun, though it takes too long to understand what exactly it is about, certain moments feel unneeded and could have been removed, certain characters are not portrayed properly compared to real life, and it feels like it wants to say something deep and profound it just feels like there's too much to actually say it. Over all: 99%

2019 top list so far:
1. Avengers: Endgame

2. Toy Story 4

3. Shazam!

4. Spider-Man: Far From Home

5. Rocketman

6. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

7. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

8. Godzilla: King of the Monsters

9. Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

10. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

11. Us

12. Aladdin 2019

13. Pokemon Detective Pikachu

14. Captain Marvel

15. The Lion King 2019

16. Yesterday

17. Pet Sematary 2019

18. The Upside

19. Dark Phoenix

20. Cold Pursuit

21. Glass