Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ First Reactions: ‘Beautiful, Brash Rumination’

Cannes 2019: The film premiered at the festival on Tuesday

Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Sony Pictures

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, and early reviews are calling the film “mesmerizing,” “beautiful” and “the film QT was meant to make.”

However, Screen Daily’s Tim Grierson writes: “ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: Like a lot of recent Tarantino, this is baggy, self-indulgent, fascinatingly its own thing and ambitiously conceived. Of course it’s accomplished, sometimes dazzlingly so, but it ends up being as hit-or-miss as his last few.”

“Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” is set in Hollywood in 1969 and follows a fading TV actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) who teams up with his stunt double (Brad Pitt) to reclaim fame during Hollywood’s final years of its golden age. But always lurking in the shadows of what is, in a way, an otherwise sunny and colorful Hollywood fairy tale, is Charles Manson and the Manson Family murders that took place in this same time period. Margot Robbie is playing the murdered film star Sharon Tate.

“#OnceUponATimeInHollywood is a beautiful, brash rumination on the grime and beauty of Hollywood. It is a dirty, sensually realized feat, with many, many shots of dirty, sensualized feet,” critic Jason Gorber wrote.

“Once Upon a Time …. in Hollywood” is Tarantino’s ninth film, and it premieres at Cannes Tuesday before opening in theaters from Sony on July 26. Tarantino has asked that people who see the movie at Cannes withhold any spoilers, but for now, we have this trailer to get excited over.

Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the film that also stars Al Pacino, Timothy Olyphant, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Margot Qualley and the late Luke Perry.

According to people who attended the premiere, Tarantino received a long standing ovation before the film even started.

See the reactions below.

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