Margaret Qualley – Tripping Through Gateways

And so here we are at Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film (Apparently Death Proof does not count?). A pretty loving homage to the Hollywood of the 60’s, Tarantino weaves a tale of fading actor Rick Dalton and his best friend Cliff Booth and their place in it all. Cliff is less bothered, content to help out his friend and then spend the evening sitting in front the TV with his dog. But after a meeting with producer Marvin Schwarz, Rick is realizing he is becoming…well obsolete…and it scares him.

I suspect Dalton’s crisis is not uncommon in Hollywood…but does it make for a great story?

Yeah. It turns out that here? It sure does.

Now, of course, this is in part, due to the performances of both DiCaprio and Pitt as Dalton and Booth respectively. DeCaprio’s portrayal is both hilarious and endearing. Pitt gives Booth a real sense of casual cool.

The writing is both the cleverness we expect from Tarantino matched with compelling characters (there is a bit of a question if Cliff is maybe a darker guy, but the film leaves the door open on just how dark). I would say the weakest link in the main characters is Robbie’s Sharon Tate. Not because Robbie is a bad actress. She is charming and kind as Tate. There is a sequence where we see Robbie express insecurity turning to joy as she watches a movie she is in with an audience. Robbie sells this moment. But she feels so incidental to the story for much of the time.

The cast is just full of great talent… Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant and a pretty endless group bringing their A-game.

Visually, the film feels it is of another time, truly like a creature of the 60’s. And the soundtrack is darn near perfect.

My only real criticism is a somewhat lazy time jump that glosses over six months. But, admittedly, had they shown all of it, the film would be, like five hours long. And I do like listening to the Kurt Russell narration.

I found Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood great fun. Bear in mind, this is a Tarantino film…if you hate his previous work, I don’t think this will change your mind. But fans will appreciate this one for sure.

Meet Light Turner. He is in high school and frustrated by bullies. He is also angry that the drunk driver who killed his mother walked. One day, a notebook falls from the sky. It is full of rules, and comes with great power. Oh…and a demon or a death god or some such thing. This tall creature with a love for apples is named Ryuk.

Ryuk explains that all Light must do is write the name of a person (while picturing their face) and a method of death…and it will happen. Light initially believes himself to be dreaming, but when he realizes that a local bully indeed died as he wrote in the book, he starts to get an idea. With his girlfriend Mia, he begins a campaign against crime causing the death of hundreds of terrorists, murderers and other terrible people. He attributes it to “Kira”. But Kira attracts the attention of the authorities, including his own father, Detective James Turner. Joining Light’s father is Watari and the mysterious L.

The film follows Lights attempts to not get caught, while trying to figure out how to avoid killing good people. L knows Light is behind Kira…but is not sure how he is doing it.

Death Note is a pretty interesting concept. However, it is based on an anime series as well as a manga series. And here they have forced the entire series into under two hours. Which results in a major rush to tell the story. So interesting concepts (Light cannot simply write L’s name in the book, because they do not know his real name and almost nobody knows what he looks like. But everything has to play out so fast that there is no opportunity to fully explore these things.

And it is to bad. Director Adam Wingard has a good cast at his disposal. Shea Wigham is quite good as Light’s father. And Get Out’s Lakeith Stanfield is good in the role of the mysterious L. Willem Defoe obviously had some fun as the voice of Ryuk. Had Netflix maybe planned this as a start of a series, the film might have worked better. While I am sure the goal includes further films, trying to force Lights tale into such a short space simply results in it being hard to connect with the characters.

Tag: Margaret Qualley

Fading Glories (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, 2019)

Taking Notes (Death Note, 2017)