victoria pedretti once upon a time in hollywood

VICTORIA PEDRETTI ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD MOVIE
VICTORIA PEDRETTI ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD TV

“Hooper,” 1978, was directed by Hal Needham, acclaimed as the greatest stuntman of all time, and much of Burt Reynolds’ portrayal feels authentic.

VICTORIA PEDRETTI ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD MOVIE

It’s a curious 180 from another movie about a stuntman, Burt Reynolds’ “Hooper,” which is not a great movie but draws a much more convincing portrait, like Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler,” of a battered entertainer who should move on to another career but thrives on the adrenaline of his profession. Tarantino needs to justify how someone as impressive as Cliff has come to find himself in such a groveling position rather than commanding premium dollars for working on Steve McQueen films.

Rumors about an actor are one thing rumors about a stuntman seem like a strange plot device. Tarantino seems to be saying, There’s an infrastructure here of Cliffs, people who seem to do all the right things even though there are rumors they’ve done very bad things hence, look where Cliff lives. Brad Pitt’s happy-to-be-here typecasting keeps him out of lead roles but serves him well as Cliff, whose backstory is delivered like the shrapnel that his life has become. That’s an homage to much farther back than 1969 Vincent Price, for example, did it in the playful 1951 Robert Mitchum-Jane Russell noir “His Kind of Woman.”Ĭliff Booth, Rick’s aging gofer, easily grasps the Pavlovian world that most his age should’ve long graduated from - keep doing things for important people, and they’ll (barely) take care of you. He has a heart, but it’s not connected to anything that matters.Įventually, he will find himself a real hero, but a fluky one. Yes, he’s a capable performer, but he’s expecting success to come to him.

He drinks too much and takes work for granted and feels sorry for himself. Tarantino quietly suggests that maybe Rick’s star is fading because of Rick. So Rick is a victim of a cutthroat industry.

VICTORIA PEDRETTI ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD TV

The money is concentrated at the top, barely trickling down to the heroic support staff who live in shacks near drive-in theaters, while any fame is rapidly fleeting for anyone not on a marquee or on this week’s cover of TV Guide. It also strongly suggests, as does Sofia Coppola’s convincing works of “The Bling Ring,” “Lost in Translation,” and “Somewhere,” that even famous Hollywood figures lead uninteresting or unrewarding lives filled with the daily grind of Average Joe. Tarantino’s film suggests Hollywood is a tough business, serving a fickle public that crowns stars and then discards them. They say that movies about the past tend to be even more about the present. (Which also calls into question the static, tiresome opening conversations with Al Pacino’s shady casting exec Marvin Schwarz, whose most memorable line is the pronunciation of his name, “Schwars” (not “Schwartz”).) Rick’s career path suspiciously seems to mirror that of Clint Eastwood, except that when Rick gets sent to Europe, he comes back with little more than a wife. He is also extraordinarily boyish-looking, a characteristic that was ideal for “Titanic” but should’ve nullified his casting as Rick Dalton. Leonardo DiCaprio is an extraordinary film actor. Anniversary films tend to do little more than re-create and mark time.

The movie was released just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders. According to reports, Tarantino conceived the idea back in 2009 any film concept that takes 10 years to get finished is, almost unfailingly, a dubious one. Incomplete, despite running 161 minutes, an eye-opening indulgence - “wasteful self-indulgence,” according to Rex Reed - of even an acclaimed director.Ī few red flags are evident. It’s a film of beautiful but incomplete sentiment. in Hollywood” never quite figures it out.

But what is that “something”? “Once Upon a Time. Many born in the ’60s or ’50s will tell you he’s right. in Hollywood” is desperately trying to tell us something he has undoubtedly believed for a very long time - that there is something special or significant about the year 1969, at least as experienced in Southern California. He and the still-living members of his gang, though permanently incarcerated, have experienced decades of pop-culture notoriety for one of America’s most senseless and unforgivable crime sprees. Charles Manson reached age 83 spouting venom from prison. Four other people who were not moviemakers were slain at that house, but it’s the butchering of the pregnant Tate, a New Hollywood actress at 26, that shocked the world, a public trauma that only intensified over months as the killers, for a short while, somehow were getting away with it. What is Hollywood’s Worst Day? It quite possibly is the murder of Sharon Tate in the very early hours of Aug. ‘Once Upon a Time’ makes a call on Hollywood’s Worst Day

Victoria pedretti once upon a time in hollywood