ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019)

Rated :  R

STARS:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino
DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino
GENRE : Comedy/ Drama

Quentin Tarantino has been an acquired taste for me, like the teenager who's not yet crazy about the taste of beer, but he'll imbibe along with his peers just to see what all the buzz is about. I'm happy to report there's no bitter aftertaste for me with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Tarantino's latest--which seems tailor made for the boomer crowd, with it's delightfully creative sixties soundtrack and its partly historical and partly fictionalized story of the Charlie Manson clan and the ritualized murders of actress Sharon Tate and several of her friends back in '69.

The story centers around aging western film actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his stunt double buddy Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Dalton's film career is in decline, and Booth is seen as something of a loose cannon, who may have killed his wife and gotten away with it. The story line allows DiCaprio, as he bemoans his declining prospects, to bring out his sensitive side, while Pitt gets to explore his macho instincts in spades.  

Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate in all of her blonde-ness--and there's a cameo from Al Pacino as a  bespectacled agent, and the always expected snippet from crotchety old bastard Bruce Dern, who's become the new Brian Dennehy in that he shows up in just about every movie being made these days.  

Methinks that to get your money's worth here, you'll need to be of a certain age, or have read Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter--the definitive work on the Manson family and their grisly handiwork. Younger viewers may not pick up on who some of these historical figures--Tex Watson, "Squeaky" Fromme, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, etc. are when their characters are introduced and thus miss that tingling sense of foreboding when you know what's about to happen--or what you think is going to happen--as the film careens to it's ultra-violent climax. But here, for once, the violence seems justified in a primal and satisfying way, because it's striking back at evil.   

You've got your celluloid heroes and you've got your real heroes. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood proposes what if, through some cosmic glitch, known reality was thrown out of whack just long enough for them to become one and the same and change history in the process? And what if we could present that idea in such a rip-roaring way that we create what's going to be the most talked about film of the year? What if heroes were around to prevent some of the senseless tragedies occurring with alarming frequency? We're still searching for some of those heroes today.

Grade:  A
  

JILL'S TAKE

For anyone planning to see this film, I have two serious suggestions: First, bone up on your Hollywood trivia so you can snicker at all the inside jokes (i.e. Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns, Natalie Wood's murder on a boat, the all-too-familiar alcoholic actor flubbing lines, etc.). And the second suggestion? Take a pee break before this 2 hour and 41 minute epic begins....

As anyone who has ever gone to the movies with me will attest, I always ask the same two questions on leaving the theater: "What did you like best? And what did you like least?" (It's my way of curbing too much filmic filibustering.) To answer my own two questions, the script's ending had the most original twist I think I've ever seen. And the worst thing about "Once Upon A Time....."? Too damn long. I would have cut an hour's worth of this tale. But now that Quentin T. has earned his screenwriting chops with two Academy Awards to his credit (Django Unchained, 2012; Pulp Fiction,1994), he thinks he can do no wrong.

So many great scenes... Sharon Tate (played with delightful innocence by Margot Robbie), sitting in the audience enraptured by her own performance in a Dean Martin movie; Leonard Di Caprio chastising himself in the mirror for being too drunk to remember his lines; Brad Pitt's pit bull waiting to eat his dinner until his master chows down. I could go on and on. But so did all of these scenes!

The attention to detail—the vintage cars, the well known eateries in Hollywood, the hippy outfits, the musical score—was impressive. Hats off all the behind-the-scenes production people who made it possible.

I'm glad Tim liked it. But me? Too long. Too disjointed. And too repetitious. (And I can't help wondering how the families of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and Abigail Folger would feel about this film.)

Grade: C+

ALLIED (2016)

Rated: R

STARS: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard
DIRECTOR: Robert Zemeckis
GENRE: Drama/Action-Adventure/Romance

Allied has a little something for everybody. Action...adventure...intrigue...espionage...suspense... romance...and the eye candy of Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. (So I guess they can be forgiven for not coming up with a more imaginative title!)

Pitt is Canadian intelligence officer Max Vatan. Cotillard is French resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (don't make me spell that name again). Eye candy meets eye candy behind enemy lines in 1942 Morocco, where they devour each other upon first glance. It's not love at first sight, but it is marriage at first sight, as their cover story is that they are husband and wife. They hit the ground running with their act for the benefit of friends and Nazis. Their mission is to assassinate a high ranking German official and high-tail it outta Dodge (or Casablanca in this case).

Playing a role can sometimes put you in the mood for the real thing, and Vatan wants to make her his wife for real, which they take care of in London. Before you know it, a little one--Anna--pops out, and the three of them have one idyllic year together before the feces hits the fan. Max is called to Special Operations headquarters where he is informed that Marianne just might be a double agent, working for the Germans. Imagine his conflicted emotions when he is informed that if suspicions are true, HE will be expected to eliminate her. His wife...the mother of his child! Everything that comes after that would be a spoiler. But there's a lot to reflect on, primarily about how loyalty to duty and country trumps all human considerations in time of war. Could he carry out such a mind-bogglingly horrific order--if it comes to that--or will love conquer all (or at least take a valiant stab at it) in the end?

There is one quirky little scene in Allied that seems out of place. Vatan is shuffling cards like a magician to prove to a skeptical Nazi that he's a serious poker player, but the sequence goes on for so long it becomes cartoonish. I started to wonder if we were going to veer off into serio-comic territory, a la Raiders Of The Lost Ark, but fortunately the rest of the film plays it straight.

Pitt and the doe-eyed Cotlllard create some onscreen steam together, which probably wasn't difficult since rumor has it they were hooking up romantically for real throughout the filming.

That's called taking your work home with you.

Grade:  B +

JILL'S TAKE

Tim pretty much covered the main points of Allied and he'll get no arguments from me. As for the two lead's pheremone-filled chemistry? I definitely feel Angelina had just cause to worry! And all through the movie, I kept being impressed with how well-preserved Brad is at age 52. Nary a wrinkle graces his cherubic face -- and he's got a nice ass, too! But enough about the film's more profound points...

Allied is definitely an attention-grabber. Just as I thought I knew what was happening, a new plot twist would emerge and foil my assumptions. Is Vatan's wife a spy? Will he be forced to execute the woman he loves? This brings up my one bone of contention which is how Brad Pitt's character could be, on the one hand, such a cold-blooded killer and, on the other, so blinded by love? I'm not sure director Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Cast Away,Forrest Gump) could have directed it any differently. And if he had, the film might have lost a lot of its impact.

I won't give anything away by this, but I do want to mention and praise the acting of Marion Bailey who plays Mrs. Sinclair, a kindly baby sitter. 

Grade: B+ (sorry to be such a copycat, Tim)

THE COUNSELOR (2013)

Rated: R

Stars: Michael Fassbender,  Javier Bardem,  Penelope Cruz,  Cameron Diaz,  Brad Pitt

Director: Ridley Scott

Genre: Crime Thriller/  Drama

Jolly good, then. Let's get to it. Most of the characters in The Counselor are assholes. No, make that stupid assholes. We know that early on because two of them, a drug mogul and his raunchy girlfriend--Javier Bardem and Cameron Diaz--keep cheetahs (with pretty collars) as pets. These folks have nothing to recommend them to any higher authority as having played the game of life with a whit of conscience, decency, or human compassion. And I've always found it strange (because the mentality exists in real life) that people would risk their freedom, and more often than not their lives, for illicit material gain--when they already have fresh air, clothes on their back, food on the table, a roof over their head, a nice dog (or girlfriend) to lick their face...what's missing here besides your sick, twisted obsession to prove to yourself that you are unworthy of happiness?  

Central to this charming tale of unmitigated greed is the defense attorney known only as "Counselor" (Michael Fassbender). He buys his girlfriend (Penelope Cruz) a 3.8 carat diamond ring, then falls in with a big-time drug ring to finance it.  One would think that it takes some smarts to become an attorney . There are multiple times when Counselor is asked if he's sure he wants to get involved in all this nasty business, and he never flinches. Ugh. Big ring make need for big money. Mmmm...what possibly go wrong?

Of course, things start to spiral out of control in short order and the noose begins to tighten around Counselor's neck (a pun I won't spoil if you are indiscriminate enough to plop your money down for this) as the Mexican drug deal he is counting on to save his financial ass goes awry. And somebody has to pay.

Along the way, The Counselor pauses now and again for some pretentious philosophizing about life. The movie is getting slammed for that more than for the fact that it's difficult to keep straight who's connected to whom and just how and why.  Stuff like when Bardem's character, Reiner, says: "Are you really that cold?"  And sleaze-squeeze Malkina (Carmen Diaz) replies: "The truth has no temperature."  The screen heats up, though, when Diaz demonstrates the fruits of her workout ethic by doing  the splits on the windshield of Reiner's Ferrari--grinding panty-less as he observes from inside. (See artist rendering above!)  Later, when relating the story of the incident, he states: "That kind of thing changes you."

A stellar cast will draw filmgoers to this one just out of curiosity. But Cormac McCarthy's bleak and cynical script (his first screenwriting effort) may turn me into more of a misanthrope than I already am. (For the record, McCarthy's The Road was  the most soulless and depressing book I've ever read. )

Penelope Cruz provides some sweet steaminess. Javier Bardem adds some darkly comic relief. Fassbender is a clueless wonder. Carmen Diaz has an evil-looking face to begin with--she better guard against getting typecast.  Brad Pitt is a drugstore cowboy type who may be the most likable character in the movie.     

But none can save The Counselor  from going down.

Grade: D

JILL'S TAKE

Never mind all the things Tim has already pointed out—a disjointed script, red herrings that never get resolved, unsympathetic characters—my main beef with THE COUNSELOR is not about the film per se. It's about the actors—damn fine actors, too—who let themselves be talked into appearing in such mindless drivel. I can understand why Michael Fassbender might say yes to this turkey, given his sexual track record in "Shame." The opening scene between him and Penelope Cruz (Javier Bardem's wife in real life) outdoes itself in the oral sex department.

But it's downhill from there.

I was so confused by who was gunning for whom that I found myself hoping the cheetahs would make a meal out of at least one of these gangsta narcissisistas. About the only good thing I can say about this endlessly talky film is....I'm thinking, I'm thinking!

I liked Carmen Diaz' fake silver fingernails.

Grade: F

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

Brad Pitt is Benjamin Button, a man who is born as an ugly 80 year old infant and then proceeds to grow younger and much better looking because, after all, it IS Brad Pitt. Trust me, seeing Brad Pitt's head on the body of a midget as Benjamin's metamorphosis unfolds is nearly worth the price of admission.

About two-thirds of the way through, it ocurred to me that this film was hauntingly reminiscent of Forrest Gump. Both Forrest and Benjamin travel around and have lots of unusual experiences; each has a love interest that involves an on again-off again relationship, and both films contain lots of homespun philosophy. I later learned that the screenplay for both films was written by the same guy, (Eric Roth) and high-fived myself for picking up on it before the fact.

The real sweetness of this film revolves around Benjamin's love interest (Cate Blanchett) who sarts the movie as a little girl, aging normally while Benjamin does his bass-ackwards thing, and it becomes evident that at some pivotal moment in time they are going to meet again and become lovers--which just goes to show that, as they say in comedy, timing is everything.

Perhaps what's MOST curious about Benjamin Button is that several people are aware of his reverse aging, but aren't taking great pains to hide it from anyone, so don't you think that sooner or later the feds would get word of it--grab him, and lock him up so they could study him for the rest of his life? But then, there would go your movie. (And if the dog hadn't stopped to pee, he'd have caught the rabbit.) Philosophically speaking, if we all aged backwards, what a world it would be. YOUNG people with all the knowledge and wisdom of a lifetime...actually showing some respect for their elders!

I do believe that had it been a year when "Slumdog Mania" did not exist, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, nominated for a slew of academy awards but only garnering a few relatively minor Oscars, would have scored many more.

Timing is everything.

GRADE: A