Set in 1969, Quentin Tarantino's new film is two stories ran
in parallel. The first is total fiction and concerns Rick Dalton (Leonardo
DiCaprio), a TV cowboy in the long running series ‘Bounty Law’.
.
Rick is now a fading
star as Hollywood moves on to newer and younger things. So Rick is attempting
to reinvent himself but is only being offered bit parts as a bad guy. On the
downward curve alongside him is his stunt man Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). They are
drinking buddies but while Rick lives in luxury in the Hollywood hills, Cliff
lives in a trailer with his dog, Brandy.
Meanwhile, living next door to Rick on Cielo Drive is Roman
Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) with his wife Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Cue the
second story, a factual one that is about to get the Tarantino treatment.
The film is set in the months leading up the real life murder
of the pregnant Tate and all the other occupants of the house on Cielo Drive at
that time. Tarantino slow burns through that period filling in Rick and Cliff’s
story and dropping in casual encounters with Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) and
some of his ‘Family’ members. Cliff even visits Spahn Ranch to see an old
acquaintance George Spahn (Bruce Dern) where the Family are now holed up.
Where is the film going? Of course with Tarantino you can
never be sure until you get there. He could have recreated the murders. He certainly
wouldn't have baulked at that. In fact you find yourself waiting for tragedy to
strike knowing that with Tarantino they would have been in equal parts
brilliant and unwatchable but he didn't. Thankfully he didn't. The title of the
film implies this is a fairy tale, where endings can be anything you want them
to be, so all bets are off.
Overall it’s a long, but mesmerizing, film with all the usual
immaculate detail along with an incredible soundtrack (naturally), great cinematography,
great acting especially DiCaprio and Pitt among plenty of famous names both as actors
and as characters played by other actors. Typically there’s plenty of drugs and
violence, and a stirring of controversy in casting Cliff as a wife killer among
other things in the film to get people wound up but most of all Tarantino does
what he does best. He tells a great story.
Some Quentin Tarantino movies of late have disappointed, this
one doesn’t. This is right up there with his best. He might as well retire now.
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