Robbie is given disappointingly little to do aside from look gorgeous, but she has one captivating scene in which Sharon wanders into a movie theater to watch the Dean Martin spy caper The Wrecking Crew, in which she co-starred, her face lighting up with every audience reaction to the real Tate’s klutzy comedy onscreen. Polanski remains a background figure, away on a shoot in England on the fateful night, but Tate floats through the movie like a golden-haired dream goddess in miniskirts and go-go boots. The folks who found the violence against the one significant female character in The Hateful Eight especially noxious will have more to complain about here, while others who respond to the mellow groove of the Rick-Cliff dynamic will possibly find the swerve into gnarly Grand Guignol a little jarring. The classic Western element of a cocksure stranger moseying into a town where he’s met by suspicious gazes fits neatly with Tarantino’s thematic interest in the outsize influence of Hollywood on American life.Īudiences in Cannes have been urged in a personal note from the director and producers to refrain from plot spoilers, so while it’s well known that the movie deals with the period immediately surrounding the Manson murders, let’s just say Tarantino puts his own playful spin on that horrific chapter of Hollywood history, which won’t be entirely surprising to anyone who’s been paying attention to his recent work. Cliff knows the place well from the days of Rick’s TV show Bounty Law, and his insistence on seeing the owner, George Spahn (Bruce Dern), leaves him with more questions than answers. One of the movie’s best scenes comes when Cliff drives Pussycat home to the disused Spahn Movie Ranch and has an uneasy meeting with her adoptive family members, including wary earth mother Gypsy (Lena Dunham) and an openly hostile Squeaky Fromme (Dakota Fanning). Rick dismisses them as hippie trash, while Cliff is more intrigued, particularly by a flirty nymph in a crochet halter top and denim cutoffs named Pussycat, played by Margaret Qualley in a performance of insouciant sexual authority. Then there are the clusters of female Manson family acolytes, either dumpster-diving for food or hanging out on street corners to give tourists a thrill. At a Playboy Mansion party, while Sharon dances with Michelle Phillips and Mama Cass, Damian Lewis drops by as Steve McQueen to explain that Sharon’s ex-fiance, hairdresser Jay Sebring (Emile Hirsch), remains in the picture waiting for Polanski to screw up the marriage. Running parallel to Rick and Cliff’s story are glimpses into the more glamorous lives of Rick’s Cielo Drive neighbors, Sharon Tate ( Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), whose proximity only makes Rick’s exclusion from the New Hollywood club sting more. ![]() And in case you’d forgotten Tarantino’s weird thing about women’s feet, this movie is here to remind us in a big way. It’s stuffed with TV and movie pastiches as well as actual clips, endless billboards and movie theater marquees, and sustained bursts of Los Angeles station KHJ, blasting pop tunes and commercials over car radios throughout. With richly detailed input from production designer Barbara Ling and beyond-cool retro fashions from costumer Arianne Phillips, Tarantino folds the low-key buddy comedy into a lovingly re-created, almost fetishistic celebration of late ’60s Hollywood, infused with color and vitality by cinematographer Robbie Richardson. Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)Ĭast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Al Pacino A sizable audience will doubtless share that enjoyment, even if the two ambling hours of detours, recaps and diversions that precede the standard climactic explosion of graphic violence are virtually plotless. In his ninth feature, the writer-director at the same time is having sly fun riffing on his own work, in particular his penchant for gleeful revisionist history. Quentin Tarantino renews his vows as a devout fanboy, rifling through his formative influences in vintage American B-movies and TV, spaghetti Westerns, martial arts, popular music and an endless assortment of cultural ephemera in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
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