'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' Reactions: Tarantino's Latest Is A Brilliant, Baggy & Self-Indulgent Ode To Hollywood

Update: our own review of “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” is here…

Happy Quentin Tarantino/”Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” Day. The filmmaker’s latest has premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and on the eve of its debut a new trailer arrived, Tarantino doing some press and the collective worry that Tarantino was going to fuck with history and have Bruce Lee save Sharon Tate from the Manson clan or something. Tarantino’s revisionist history has been troublesome or fascinating in the past, but with the sensitivity surrounding Sharon Tate and her grizzly death at the hands of the Manson cult, many were generally worried.

But the earlier reactions are in, and the general word is super positive. The consensus seems to be that “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” does mess with history, but not in a way that’s too offensive, that the film is mainly brilliant and yes, a little baggy and self-indulgent in the way that we’ve expected Tarantino films to be in recent years (or all the time).

It appears that Tarantino’s claims that ‘Hollywood’ would be most similar to “Pulp Fiction” is valid and he creates an intricate, mosaic and tapestry of characters (the cast does after all feature dozens and dozens of stars).

It also sounds like, which you might have guessed from the premise and setting, late 1960s Hollywood, a goodbye to the end of that era of filmmaking and how the Manson murders and Nixon would usher in a new, cynical era of moviemaking much different from the previous decade. In the film, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a fading actor known for Spaghetti Westerns and B-movies. Brad Pitt plays his stuntman, and best friend and actors like Al Pacino, Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Damian Lewis (playing Steve McQueen), Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant and more are along for the ride (Margot Robbie co-stars as Sharon Tate).

Anyhow, the reactions are mostly positive, some of them even ecstatic, with a few, but small reservations. Our review will be here momentarily, so keep an eye out. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” will be released by Sony Pictures on July 26. Twitter reactions from various critics, including Playlister Gregory Ellwood and contributors like Charles Bramesco, Jordan Ruimy, and Guy Lodge, who wrote our review, below.

For its first two hours alone, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD is my favourite Tarantino since KILL BILL VOL. 1. The rest we'll have to talk about another time.

— Guy Lodge (@GuyLodge) May 21, 2019

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is the sweetest and most nostalgic film of Quentin Tarantino's career. A love letter to a time gone by and a literal fairy tale. DiCaprio and Pitt are fantastic. Tons of great actors kill it in small roles. #Cannes2019

— Gregory Ellwood – Cannes – Playlist ???? (@TheGregoryE) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: the end of an era. Review to come.

— Charles Bramesco (@intothecrevasse) May 21, 2019

To my own great surprise, I loved ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, Tarantino’s mellowest, most mature and moving film since JACKIE BROWN. Feel like it’s one for those of us who didn’t care for INGLOURIOUS + DJANGO (not to mention HATEFUL 8). #Cannes2019

— Jon Frosch (@jon_frosch) May 21, 2019

Quentin Tarantino’s brilliant exploitation black-comedy Once Upon A Time In Hollywood finds a pulp-fictionally redemptive take on the Manson nightmare: shocking, gripping, dazzlingly shot in the celluloid-primary colours of sky blue and sunset gold. Review later #Cannes2019

— Peter Bradshaw (@PeterBradshaw1) May 21, 2019

I wouldn’t change a single second of Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood. It did not disappoint. #Cannes2019

— Damon Wise (@yo_damo) May 21, 2019

I laughed. I gasped. I wondered: What would Roman Polanski think? I begrudgingly agreed not to tweet out spoilers. Tarantino delivers an ode to Hollywood's lost innocence, while cheekily suggesting it never had any to begin with. #OnceUponATimeinHollywood #Cannes2019 pic.twitter.com/DBgriD2Ihb

— Chris Knight (@ChrisKnightfilm) May 21, 2019

#OnceUponATimeInHollywood is a mesmerizing mix of Jackie Brown- and Inglourious Basterds-Tarantino. QT is at his least flashiest and most emotional, yet at the same time having a ball toying around with Hollywood cinema, locations and history. #vertigocannes #cannes2019

— Steven Tuffin (@Waanzinema) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD is wonderful. it’s like tarantino is just dreamily reminiscing for our benefit. feels innocent somehow—lovely, pure, hilarious. witnessing robbie, dicaprio, & pitt pristinely embody 60s LA is enough to make it great. and????????that????????payoff???????? #Cannes2019

— Luke Hicks @ Cannes (@lou_kicks) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: Quentin Tarantino finally made a film about "real people," in every sense of the phrase. liked it as a wounded portrait of middle-age reflected against the end of the movies' *golden* age (Leo/Pitt are obv great). but it's SO scattered & SO stolid.

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) May 21, 2019

Tarantino’s gorgeous Once Upon a Time in Hollywood lovingly recreates a showbiz period that is long past, of cowboys, manly men and crazy hippies. DiCaprio and Pitt are funny and brilliant, as is Margot Robbie as sweet Sharon Tate. It’s an elegy. #Cannes19 pic.twitter.com/Ml7GmyUqMM

— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) May 21, 2019

That was…a lot of feet

— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) May 21, 2019

Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is so gloriously, wickedly indulgent, compelling and hilarious. The film QT was born to make. The world is a more colourful place in Quentin Tarantino’s twilight zone. Round two, please. #Cannes2019

— Joe Utichi (@joeutichi) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD – Historically dubious, thematically brilliant, QT finds his form in film that could win Palme d'Or or be picketed by audiences, or maybe both. Thrilling, provocative, blackly comical, intensely unsettling masterwork. #cannes2019

— Jason Gorber – at #Cannes2019 (@filmfest_ca) May 21, 2019

I reeeeally liked ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD #Cannes2019

— Emma Stefansky (@stefabsky) May 21, 2019

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: QT's latest has some of the best sequences of his career, but also some of the draggiest. A scrambling, ambitious, maddening, beautiful film. Brad Pitt steals the show. DiCaprio, as always, fantastic. #Cannes2019

— Jordan Ruimy @ Cannes (@mrRuimy) May 21, 2019

As expected, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino referencing other films and TV and old Hollywood and good times in the 60s. Digging into his past and showing us, through perfectly crafted cinema, his feelings about moviemaking and artists and the Manson murders and more.

— Alex Billington @ Cannes (@firstshowing) May 21, 2019