Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Sad Spiritual Sequel to Inglourious Basterds

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood might have left you asking one basic question: what was the point of that? Quentin Tarantino’s allegedly penultimate film is a nearly three-hour aimless bro-mantic romp through old Hollywood. While undoubtedly fun, does it lend itself to a deeper commentary on the future of cinema?

The film follows Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) as they navigate Rick’s fading career at the end of the summer of love. It is also, both literally and metaphorically, about movies.

Aside from the Hollywood-centric plot, there are a number of stylistic choices that draw our attention to the production and distribution process of filmmaking. Dialogue is deliberately dubbed over poorly, as if making a point to break the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Film grain and scratches are digitally added in post-production, and there are second-long black frames in between reel changes to hearken back to the days of clumsy projectionists.

While similar techniques were used to celebrate the medium of film in his other works like Death Proof, Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight, Once Upon a Time seems to signal a change in Tarantino’s attitude towards cinema itself. This point is most clear when comparing it to his…