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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood-rm

We think it is fair to say that Quentin Tarantino, the writer and director of this film, likes to do things his way and that he certainly does that in this film.

We meet the main characters, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a fading TV and movie star, and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who is Dalton’s stunt double, long-time friend and employee. Early in the story, Dalton’s agent (Al Pacino) suggests that his career is going downhill and he may have to resort in playing Italian movies. It happens that Rick has a lovely place in Hollywood Hills next door to movie star, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), and her husband Roman Polansky. Do those names sound familiar?

The setting, in addition to being in Hollywood, is taking place in1969. If you are an auto enthusiast, you will recognize many of the cars of that era. You will also get an inside glimpse of the movie sets of that time and how actors would rehearse their lines.

Tarantino, in addition through telling us a story his way, is showing us behind-the-scenes movie world where we can watch a classic Western movie being prepared. We even have a chance to meet Bruce Lee (Michael Moh) who has an interesting battle with the Brad Pitt character. There are other familiar supporting actors throughout the films such as Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Luke Perry, Lena Dunham, and Damian Lewis). In fact, the acting, writing and directing, as expected, is very imaginative. The main problem with the film is that it took three hours for Tarantino to show us his fantasy of the movie world nearly 50 years ago. (2019)

**

Happy Christmas –sp This is a Joe Swanberg independent low budget production, for which he also wrote the screenplay, directed it , played a leading role and had his under two year old son play his son in the film. The story opens as we meet Jeff (Joe Swanberg) and his wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) who seem happy enough with their young son (Jade Swanberg- who actually gives a great performance)). Kelly is a stay at home mom who is a novelist and has had a book published. Their happy abode is interrupted by a visit for a undetermined duration by Jenny, Jeff’s sister (Anna Kendrick) who just broke up with her boyfriend. She is “a piece of work” as she develops a quick sexual relationship with young neighborhood guy (Mark Webber) who sells her pot. She smokes and drinks her self repeatedly to near oblivion and almost burns down the house. In between there is lots of interesting women’s talk with her good friend Carson (Lena Dunham of Girls fame) and Kelly. In fact Kelly is convinced by Jenny in a sober moment that she should try to become financially well off by putting aside her serious attempt to write another novel and instead write a popular novel ,best seller type, based on life style information that Jenny will provide. The point would seem to be that there could be a pathway for a bright woman other than by “just being a full time housewife.” The fact is that the movie doesn’t really go anyplace and never intends to go anyplace. It is a study of these characters with a minimal story and much dialogue that we learned from a post film interview with two of the actors was improvised for much of the time and was achieved on film in one or two takes for each scene. It seems to be part of the new “Mumblecore” genre which attempts to achieve naturalistic performances, without a clear narrative structure often using a great deal of improvisation. We tried to consider if it was successful by one of us acknowledging that the action did hold one’s attention but we both agreed that we really couldn’t recommend the film to anyone to spend 78 minutes with it. Maybe the film could be used in a teaching setting to demonstrate the devastating trajectory of a young woman with a Borderline Personality although we really didn’t have very much backstory on her to fully understand her. We did get the feeling that the story did not convey the potential grave prognosis for a character such as Jenny unless she were to get some serious therapy. But that is another story. (2014)

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Francis Ha – rm If you are a couple of generations  out of sync with Francis Ha you may find it difficult to  relate to this 27 year old woman (Greta Gerwig) who is trying to establish her life in New York City as a dancer, actually as an apprentice dancer who in fact doesn’t even have her own apartment. We  first meet her with her best buddy girl friend Sophie (Mickey Summer) who isn’t quite as immature as Francis (which isn’t saying much) and is able to move her life along. By the way, another one of her friends is played by Grace Gummer who is a dead ringer for Meryl Streep and happens to be her daughter. We found ourselves feeling sorry for the likeable Francis much as we felt when we caught some episodes of the popular television program Girls with Lena Dunhan as she stumbles through the singles scene in good old New York. It may still be true “that if you can make it there you can make it anywhere”. However, as these characters demonstrate, it may be much more difficult for young women to kick start their lives in today’s single scene in New York and elsewhere. In past generations we recall 20 and 30  something women  usually had jobs and were on their way to careers, especially if they were college graduates  and most had  serious relationships. This doesn’t seem to be the case today  in this story or in real life. Writer/ Director Noah Baumback (who wrote and directed  The Squid and the Whale and Greenberg) teamed up with lead actress Greta Gerwig who also starred in the latter film and are romantically linked. Their dialogue captures the essence of their characters, ie “ We are like a lesbian couple that doesn’t have sex anymore.”   The choice to make this film in black and white allows the audience to focus on the essence of these characters and perhaps also of New York City which doesn’t need color to show it’s stark reality. It should be no surprise that the movie suggests that everything is going to be all right although it doesn’t really show us why and how that should happen. Perhaps their next film will fill in the colors. (2013)