Quentin Tarantino's ninth feature film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, had a triumphant premiere yesterday at Cannes, where festival-goers were eager to dub it the director's best since Pulp Fiction—which also debuted at the festival 25 years ago to the day, going on to win the Palme d'Or. The film also received a brand new trailer yesterday to mark the occasion, and it looks, sounds, and feels as Tarantino-esque as you'd imagine.
This is QT's sweet spot, no doubt about it, as he has always had a hard-on for this period in Hollywood. He's created Leonardo DiCaprio's character Rick Dalton and his stunt double/best friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), but has them mingling with real people like Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and, of course, Charles Manson and his family. In an interview in Esquire, DiCaprio, Pitt, and Tarantino swap stories about making the film and all working together for the first time—Pitt was in Inglourious Basterds, while DiCaprio cut his hand, literally, in Django Unchained. Tarantino also lays out the basics of the plot...
The stories of Rick, Cliff, and Tate unfold over three days or, as Tarantino says, in three acts: February 8, February 9, and, finally, August 8—the night when Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) dispatched four members of his “Family” to the house next to Rick’s on Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, where they found Tate, hairdresser Jay Sebring (Emile Hirsch), and three others.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's some twist on the whole real-life scenario awaiting us, a la the aforementioned Inglourious Basterds where Hitler and most of the Third Reich's high command all meet their end in a movie theater in Paris. Will Rick and/or Cliff somehow intervene in the evening's events and then take the fight to Manson down at the Spahn Ranch? I wouldn't be surprised.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood opens in theaters nationwide on July 26.
