Once Upon a Time In Hollywood celebrates the 60s, it also points fingers at the 60s. It showcases Hollywood and the studio & network system all while having a per usual, great QT soundtrack. The film is a journey with the lows and highs of celebrity and gives us various emotions & tones. We start with Hollywood by way of television and it is done in full QT glory with his cinema know how. Through that we see the parties with various thoughts of the Graduate & Peter Seller's The Party. Seeing the lifestyles of course brings up the hippie movement where we meet the Manson Family and we get a super cool albeit short Easy Rider fueled glimpse into their dumpster dives and hitches. Once Brad Pitt, in his best role since Fight Club, arrives at the ranch it truly begins to feel like a horror film seen through the eyes of Sam Peckinpah. The tension begins and it sticks with you the remainder of the film. Quentin tosses in a Wes Anderson scene when Pitt & Leonardo DiCaprio, in his best role since the Departed, arrive back from Italy. The first two & a half hours or so is pretty tame for a QT film, it is heavy on dialogue but not over bearing, it is stylish but it lacks that violence factor. Enter the last 30 minutes, throw that out the window and he goes for broke in a batshit crazy climax. This is much like Inglorious Basterds and is alternative history, and it works perfectly here. The film is endlessly entertaining, the script is tight as fuck, it looks gorgeous and the cast is fantastic, cameos galore, film jokes run amok and is easily his funniest film. This is possibly Tarantino's best picture since Pulp Fiction and might just be my favorite of his since said film.
