ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD is finally available to watch at home. And though it had one of the great theater runs of the year, it feels right that the chillest cinematic hang of the summer is now marinating in people’s heads from their home screens. Quentin Tarantino’s 9th and possibly penultimate film — a dark fairy tale about the mythical human beings and competing energies that occupied Hollywood in 1969 — really demands repeat viewings to fully grasp the scope and magnitude of its insatiable gravitational pull. 

A far cry from Tarantino’s last two films, 2012’s Spaghetti “Southern” Django Unchained and 2015’s Western/horror whodunnit The Hateful Eight, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD marks a deeply personal and surprisingly whimsical turn for the director, weaving the story of aging TV actor-and-stuntman duo Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) through the lives of pivotal ‘60s-LA icons Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and the Manson family to right historical wrongs in a cathartic, breathtaking, epic hangout comedy. I saw ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD three times in theaters, and watched it at home on 4K for the first time this week. And it was the home-viewing that convinced me I’d be watching it for the rest of my life. 

Nearly 6 months after its theatrical release, plenty has been said and written about ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD — it’s joys, flaws, the labyrinth of old-Hollywood references, problematic moments, and everything in between. It’s currently popping up on more best-of-the-year lists than it isn’t, and broadly considered a top-tier entry in Tarantino’s filmography. The A.V. Club’s Katie Rife called it “Tarantino’s Eden, the unspoiled garden when the things he loves don’t have to be sought out or championed because they permeate every aspect of life.” The film is indeed a seamless Tarantino joint, offering everything we’ve come to expect from the bombastic auteur’s oeuvre, only with the technical restraint (if Tarantino is capable of such a thing) and contemplative eye of a maturing veteran filmmaker.

And the end result is instant iconography. Wistful editing, meticulous costume, and production design, a killer kaleidoscopic soundtrack, and garishly vivid cinematography do a lot of heavy lifting for this movie. But ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD is ultimately grounded in the colossal magnetism of its three leads. Tarantino is a proven master of writing and casting roles that redefine an actor’s career and force us to see them in a new light. With ONCE UPON A TIME, he magically offers up two career-redefining roles for two of our greatest living movie stars. Cliff Booth is an unexpected, albeit precise concentration of Pitt’s effortlessly cool and character-actor core. And DiCaprio’s sad-clown performance as “Cowboy actor” Rick Dalton might be his best ever.

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD is certainly a story told from an older man’s perspective, but I wouldn’t say there’s much in it that feels hostile toward youth, at least not directly. The film’s conversation with time, history, fantasy, and generational conflict is deeper, funnier, and more personal than that. It’s a movie of eye-popping vignettes (strung together with careful pacing and incredible momentum by editor Fred Raskin), and every one of them feels like its own meaningful confrontation with mortality. It’s a vivid, elaborate, melancholy dream from an aging master of his craft. And it’s one hell of an entertaining ride. ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD is the best movie of the year and, if time allows, a modern classic we’ll be talking and dreaming about for decades.  

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Andy Andersen

Andy Andersen is a Film, TV, and Cannabis writer based in Long Beach, CA. Though a lifelong genre enthusiast, it wasn’t until his mid-twenties that Andy fell in love with horror, and he’s been consuming the genre with a religious fervor ever since.You can find weekly film recommendations, essays, listicles, and other pop-culture musings from Andy at evilsexyhamlet.substack.com.

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