Less than fourty-eight hours ago some of Hollywood’s biggest heavyweights assembled in Cannes as Quentin Tarantino release his ninth feature film ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ to a select-audience with a spoiler warning before the screening. After watching the 2hr 39mins film, the cast and crew received a massive seven minute standing ovation.
Critics and the lucky-bastards who were able to view the film agree with Tarantino’s statement in an Esquire interview that this is the closest thing he has made to ‘Pulp Fiction’. Funnily enough, ‘Hollywood’ debuted nearly twenty-five years to the date when that particular film debuted at Cannes, which went on to win the Palme D’or.
In Tarantino’s love-letter to the Golden Age Of Hollywood, it follows Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio, in his first film since winning the Oscar for ‘The Revenant’ back in 2015), and his stunt-double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt, looking more and more like Robert Redford) in the ever-changing Los Angeles in 1969 which is encapsulated in the Manson Family Murders.
The pairing of two of Hollywood’s most high-profile leading men appears to be an inspired partnership. Many critics quickly drew comparisons to the partnership of Robert Redford and Paul Newman in ‘Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid’, with The 81-year-old legend has admitted he can see a lot of his younger self in Brad, and revealed that was the reason the actor was cast in his 1992 coming-of-age drama ‘A River Runs Through It’, of which Redford directed. The two also shared the screen in ‘Spy Game’ in 2001.
The Hollywood Reporter described the duo having ‘killer performances’ and ‘dripping with self irony and pleasurable chemistry’.
In the UK, the holy trio of The Times, The Telegraph & The Guardian all gave the film five stars, something which I have never seen in my life.
The film will be released in an unusually crowded Summer slate, but with 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, this one has quickly put its name to the front of the Oscar debate in many categories. Whether or not it can be a financial success, considering the large $100M budget is another question, but that should not be thought about when art is being made.
And just before the premiere begun, Sony cleverly released the Official Trailer for the film, and it was drop-dead gorgeous with Neil Diamond on in the background, it explored how this film is an ensemble performance, and an examination of the best on-screen pairing since Newman and Redford. I’m beginning to think the duo should remake ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’. No? Ok then.
We’ll have to wait another two and a half months until we can see it, but it’s nice that Sony and Tarantino haven’t thought about the awards slot idea of releasing it in October, rather wanting to give it to the fans as quick as possible. This really could be an all-time classic.
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