Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

First Hit: I was transported back in time and thoroughly enjoyed this film.

For me, what makes a good film is if I am moved intellectually or emotionally and I’m learning from, or interested in the story. What makes a great film is when I’m transported into another place and time, I’m fully engaged and curious about each character, and I’m riding the crest of anticipation about the story as it unfolds.

Great films start with a great story, followed by great acting; however, it is the director who puts this all together in scenes that capture the color, time, place, and essence to make the story great.

Quentin Tarantino as writer and director has delivered a great film. One of the best he’s ever done and, so far, easily the best film of the year.

This story is about a fading actor named Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is used to playing the heavy in his films. He’s played in westerns and Army characters as shown in black and white flashbacks. This technique of using dated-looking footage to create backgrounds was used for both Dalton and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).

While Dalton is dealing with his fading career, we learn that Cliff is more than just his stunt double, he’s also Dalton’s closest friend and chauffeur. As they travel from set to set together, we learn more about Cliff with a flashback that he may have killed his wife. This is part of the setup to show that Booth is no pushover and maybe a ruthless hombre. One of the funniest scenes exemplifying this power is the scene with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh). Lee’s squeals as he prepares to strike Booth are hilarious — just an extra-level above the real Bruce Lee. As they begin to square off in a fight to prove who is the toughest, we see the inner power of Booth and his intelligence and physical prowess.

At one point Booth and Dalton are driving through Hollywood, and they encounter a group of “hippy” women digging through a trash bin, these are Charles (Charlie) Manson’s (Damon Herriman) girls. This scene combined with one in which Charlie is confronted by Dalton as he attempts to get up to the former home of Brian Wilson, introduces the audience to the weirdness of and story of the Manson Family. The house he’s trying to go to is next door to Dalton’s and is now occupied by Sharon Tate (Margo Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha). This sets up the tension of what we all know is history.

But that’s what’s impressive about this film. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” shines a new and different light on history as we know it. Although the movie does have violence, it changes the outcome of the original Manson murders in a way that left me reflective of the actual murders and the era in which they took place.

The effectiveness of the sets, as this film is set in the late 1960s, is phenomenal. I grew up in Southern California and outside of one freeway exit sign, which was too new, everything was just as it was in the Hollywood area back then. The Cinerama theater, the restaurants, the business signs, and the street scenes were all fantastic. But it was the cars that touched my heart the most when I think of the time. Dalton’s caddy, Polanski’s MG, Mustangs, Volkswagens, all of them, perfect. All the cars, whether on the freeway, parked, or driving the streets, were accurate to the time and, for me, cemented the moments.

DiCaprio was phenomenal. Showing Dalton’s insecurities and strengths all within moments of each other – perfect. I especially loved two scenes; when he returned to his trailer after flubbing a couple of lines and he berates himself with mercilessness self-flagellating dialogue. The other scene is when he’s talking to a young actor Trudi (Julia Butters). Their back and forth dialogue was sublime. Pitt was amazing as Booth. This is one of the best roles I’ve seen Pitt in, and it felt like the culmination of all the different parts he’s played, from heavy to a supportive, nice guy. Here he is all of them. Robbie, as Tate, was excellent. She captured the wonder and starry-eyed sense of a young woman finding her place in the world of acting. The theater scenes when she’s watching herself on the screen were powerful. Butters was incredible as the young actor who was serious about her job. Margaret Qualley as Manson girl “Pussycat” was terrific. She captured the free love feeling of the time so very well. Dakota Fanning as Manson girl Squeaky Fromme was powerful. She exemplified the focused control of the situation she put herself in. Moh captured the essence of Bruce Lee plus a little more. Bruce Dern was perfect as a grouchy and funny George Spahn, owner of the ranch that Manson and his followers took over. There are a ton of actors in this film in various sized roles, and I won’t name them all here but suffice to say everyone was outstanding. As I said earlier, Tarantino has peaked, for now, this was his best.

Overall: I was fascinated by this story and the way it unfolded — easily best film of the year so far.

The Mustang

First Hit: The acting was excellent and what still stays with me was deep breathing of the horse and Roman as they dealt with their caged circumstances — powerful.

The opening shots of the wild horses running the plains of the United States was a perfect set-up for this story.

Then, helicopters drop into the frame to herd the horses into a pen where some will be “broken” and sold at auction. Thinking about how these beautiful animals are taken from their habitat and used by others is both heartbreaking and hopeful.

Hopeful; in that, some of the horses are captured and trained by prisoners to be horses that will be fed and used to help society. The prisoners benefit as well.

Heartbreaking; in that the US Government thins these herds because of what happens to land and other livestock when a hundred thousand horses are left free to run the ground as they wish. Nothing likes its freedom taken away.

One of the captured horses is locked in a single wood sided stall, and he continually bangs against the walls — he wants out of his pen. He’s a wild one.

Caging a man is much the same, it can be both cruel and helpful. In this case, Roman (Matthias Schoenaerts) has been in prison for twelve years. He’s quiet, and his anger at society and himself is palpable throughout the film. He is like a walking volcano.

His opening scenes are with a prison psychologist who is asking him questions. He says nothing as he’s being asked his preferences. The psychologist asks him a few questions about how and why he’s been in solitary, and he mumbles, “I’m not good with people.”

At one point, she touches an emotional button, and he springs up in anger. His temper quick, decisive and filled with rage. The focus of his disposition is made clear to the audience.

This completes the setup of this film’s story, two wild beings caged, stewing and expressing their angst and anger at the drop of a hat.

How will these two meet each other and help each other is the journey this film takes you. To improve the story along, the prison has Myles (Bruce Dern) as the crusty, well-worn guy who helps prisoners train the horses. His demeanor tells you he’s in-charge from assigning what horse goes with what prisoner and whether a particular horse or prisoner is in the program. No one questions his authority over the program nor his understanding of the relationship between horse and man.

Roman gets the roughest assignment to help train the wildest of horses.

The scenes with Roman and the horse in the corral together are priceless. They are horrifying at some level and beyond sweet at other times. Through this experience, the audience begins to learn the depth of Roman’s pain and anger.

But the scene when a group of select prisoners talk about how quick they went from their anger to the crime puts them in prison is not only powerful but puts things into perspective.

We are grateful to learn what Roman did to get himself into prison during one of the visits from his pregnant daughter Martha (Gideon Alden). The pain both Roman and Martha have are poignantly expressed.

There are so many powerful scenes in this film that I could not point to anyone that makes this an excellent movie. However, when Myles gives Roman a hint as to how to save his wild horse, I was moved deeply. The unspoken caring was palpable.

Schoenaerts was amazing. His ability to carry his volcanic anger around in his eyes, face, and body was outstanding. Dern was phenomenally perfect. He carried his scenes with perfected aplomb. Jason Mitchell as Henry a fellow prisoner who really helps Roman find a way to communicate with his horse was excellent. Adlon as Roman’s daughter was beautiful. Her wanting to protect herself from and also love her father was well done. Connie Britton as the psychologist was excellent. Her strength during Roman’s outburst was sublime. Brock Norman Brock and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre wrote a moving and pointed script. Clermont-Tonnerre’s direction was fantastic in how she captured the feel of prison life with a slight dash of hope. The ending scene was tear evoking. In the credits, I liked that they had real prisoners and the horses they trained showing on the screen.

Overall: This is a beautiful story about one way to help men come to grips with their past actions and find a new way to grow.

White Boy Rick

First Hit: The best part of this film is that somewhere there is a true story behind it; just not very well represented here.

Rick Wershe Jr. (Richie Merritt) is a young, somewhat quiet, and cocky fifteen-year-old boy being raised by a single dad Richard Wershe Sr. (Matthew McConaughey) along with his sister Dawn (Bel Powley).

Richard has a slightly twisted view of raising his kids surely because his parents Grandpa Ray (Bruce Dern) and Grandma Verna (Piper Laurie) are a real piece of work as well. The grandparents yell from their front porch at their son, who lives across the street and spend a lot of time criticizing how Richard is raising his kids.

Film starts with Richard and Rick coming home from a gun show where they purchase fake AK-47s to resell with home made silencers. Upon reaching home, they find Dawn high on heroin while being pawed by her much older dealer black boyfriend.

From here the film dives into Rick wanting to be a dealer, gets caught up with the FBI coaxing him too turn and become an informant by letting him keep the profits of his dealing. The FBI only want Rick to turn over the bigger fish. Part of their leverage is that they lay off Richard’s creating illegal silencers for the guns he resells.

We watch Rick become a big-time dealer in Detroit, help gets his sister get clean, but then makes mistakes and eventually ends up in jail.

Merritt was good as Rick in that he showed a inner strength along with a vulnerability. McConaughey was so-so as Rick’s dad. I don’t think he fit well with this role and his odd attempt to have a Detroit, northeastern, accent didn’t work very well. Dern was entertaining as a crotchety self-righteous old man. Laurie was equally crotchety until Dawn decided to come clean and spend time with her. Powley was very strong as a girl raised by a man who had no idea on how to raise a daughter and got herself together later in the film. Close to the best acting in this film. Brian Tyree Henry was strong as Police Detective Jackson. Jennifer Jason Leigh (as Agent Snyder) was excellent as the FBI Agent trying to flip Rick. Rory Cochrane was very good as FBI Agent Byrd working with Agent Snyder to flip and help Rick. RJ Cyler as Rick’s friend Rudell “Boo” Curry was excellent. He moved through this film convincingly. Andy Weiss and Logan Miller wrote an OK screenplay. Yann Demange directed this story, and it seemed a disjointed and unclear.

Overall: This story could have been told more effectively.

Chappaquiddick

First Hit: We all knew how despicable Ted Kennedy’s actions were, this film just puts pictures to it.

When the headlines came out that “Teddy” (Jason Clarke) had driven off a bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) in the car and he survived while she drowned, the nation was shocked. As the story came out that Ted did not report this accident well into the next day, Ted became despicable and his and the Kennedy family's credibility sank to a new low.

This film shows the privileged way that Ted acted based on his being a Kennedy. Ted’s father Joseph (Bruce Dern) ran the Kennedy family with a iron crooked fist. His team of people who were on-call to protect the Kennedy name only exaggerated the privileged arrogant family ways.

Recalling the original news in the newspaper and seeing film footage of Teddy wearing a neck brace to gain sympathy was horrible then and even worse in this film. His manipulation of his Chief of Staff Joseph Gargan (Ed Helms) was painful to watch.

From a film point of view, using true accounts and the documents from the inquest, what is presented appears to be a fair reenactment of this tragic event.

Much is said about the horrific events of his older brother’s untimely deaths, two through assassination, and how Joe Kennedy expected the remaining son to carry on the family legacy. All Teddy wanted was his father’s love and respect for who he was.

Does Teddy make up for his lack of integrity around this and other events? That’s a judgment call and even though he was called “The Lion of the Senate,” this film does little to shed light on his career. It is a film about his doing nothing for Mary Jo as she slowly suffocated and drowned in an upside-down car.

Clarke was OK as Teddy. I didn’t think he showed enough of the “lion” within him but maybe the “lion” came later in life. He did a great job of being arrogant and childlike in his decision making. Mara was very good. Unfortunately, she’s not in the film a long time, but her Mary Jo stays with you during the remaining part of the film. Dern was excellent as a handicapped and old Joe Kennedy. His looks of disdain towards Teddy were perfect. Helms was excellent as Teddy’s right hand man who finally couldn’t take being Ted’s slave and foil and therefore left. Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan wrote a good script that seemed to capture the time and the feeling of crime. John Curran directed this film.

Overall: This film only validated my feelings about Teddy as a guy spending his life trying to make amends for being an unthoughtful arrogant man from an influential family.

The Hateful Eight

First Hit:  A very well shot film that had out loud moments of laughs punctuated on all sides with gore.

Violence is one thing you can depend on in a Quentin Tarantino (Writer and Director) film.

There is no disappoint in this film on that note. Everyone in this film gets a bullet or two. There are also moments of out loud laughs. Some of those laughs come at the expense of absurdity (John “The Hangman” Ruth speaking with Daisy Domergue) while others driven by outlandishly pointed dialogue (Major Marquis Warren speaking with General Sandy Smithers). However, my favorite set of laughs were the issues with closing the door – laughed each time even when I knew it was coming.

There are moments in the dialogue where it seemed that it was being pushed out by the actors and therefore I lost engagement, however those moments were few and far between. Most of the time, the dialogue was so strong, good, and well executed that I was totally immersed in the play of the words.

There is no faulting in any way, shape, or form, the absolutely beauty of the pictures presented on the screen. Even if you don’t like seeing violence, one cannot fault the beautiful way it was shot.

The outside shots of Wyoming, spectacular. The cabin’s close quarters could have felt small and confining, however the film’s format allowed for the real feeling of one large open room for eight people to the interact in and you were there voyeuristically. The storyline around the use of the word "nigger" was OK, not great, as I keep hoping we’ve moved beyond the derogatory use of this term.

Here is it used emphatically to make a point and to paint the connotation of its ugliness when used. The story didn’t hide itself well because both Ruth (Kurt Russell) and Major Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) telegraphed the problem about why all these people were in the cabin without the cabin’s owner being present.

Although there were a number of “Acts”, I’m not sure why the 3rd was so long in comparison. There was an obvious break part way through the third.

Lastly, I’d heard that the film was designed to be shown with a 10 – 15 minute intermission. Our theater did not do this and ran the 187 minute film straight through. Not that I needed or wanted an intermission – I personally don’t like them – despite its length, time went quickly while allowing each scene to breathe and develop.

As Major Warren said at one point:  “… let’s slow it down… let’s slow it way down.”

Jackson was bombastically present in this role as if it was made for him. When he’s laying out a lengthy discourse about his being on the right side of justice, he’s perfect. His eyes telegraph his intense nature. Russell was effortlessly and gruffly suspicious. Wrapped up in a large coat, hat lowered on his forehead, and a face full of hair he was an impeccable rendition of a lone bounty hunter. Jennifer Jason Leigh was oddly amazing as a wanted woman being brought to justice by Ruth. Like a caged cat, her defiance of her keeper, and her hatred towards blacks spewed forth in hisses. Truly a remarkable performance (Oscar worthy). Walter Goggins as newly appointed Sheriff Chris Mannix was very strong as he vacillated between being weak to get an advantage or strong when he was in control of varying situations in the cabin. Demian Bichir as Bob, the suspicious Mexican holding down Minnie’s, was very good stirring the soup of dialogue from time to time. Tim Roth as Oswaldo Mobray the man who hangs people dispassionately was very strong. Interesting that his take so reminded me of Christoph Waltz, that it was a bit eerie. The part could have been done by Waltz but his power would have been too much for the film. Michael Madsen as Joe Gage the quite brooding man with semi-hidden agenda was wonderful. Bruce Dern was great as the old Southern General Sandy Smithers. James Parks as stage coach driver O.B. Jackson was very good especially in the scene when he comes back from the outhouse after dumping the guns in the hole.  Channing Tatum as Jody was great to see. It isn’t often that Tatum plays a heavy and he did this well. Tarantino wrote a mostly wonderful fleshed out script. There were a couple of times where it felt forced or a little stilted coming from the actors, but overall it was very strong. The direction was superb. The camera angles, the broad vista shots, mixed with the wide 70mm lens showing the dance of each of the characters was perfect. The dark humor mixed in with intense situational dialogue was great.

Overall:  This is a strong 8th film by Tarantino and helps his resume.