“We're as real as a f**king donut!”
Join Ian, Liam & Beadle Steve for our 307th episode as we cruise down Sunset Boulevard, slip into our moccasins, and take a long, nostalgic look at Quentin Tarantino’s sun-drenched fairytale Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Megs and Kev? They’re not with us this week — Megs got invited to a last-minute audition on a Spaghetti Western set outside Rome, and Kev got lost trying to hitchhike to the Playboy Mansion. We wish them both luck.
We're also waxing poetic about Jay Glennie's excellent history of the film with "The Making of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time In Hollywood" available everywhere now.
This week we discuss:
- How Tarantino utilises revisionist history and a clear late sixties aesthetic into his most affectionate, laid-back film yet.
- Leonardo DiCaprio’s turn as Rick Dalton — insecure, electric, and oddly sympathetic.
- Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth — stuntman, handyman, maybe-murderer, absolute legend.
- Beadle Steve weighs in on the film’s leaving of breadcrumbs and its toasty payoff
- How the film handles Sharon Tate with grace, warmth, and unexpected emotional weight much to Liam's appreciation
- The Manson Family sequences — slow-burning dread done right but where is Charlie and why does Ian argue it's the right call for the film?
- Ian breaks down Tarantino’s structural choices: meandering brilliance or indulgent reimagining?
- The film’s controversial ending — catharsis, fantasy, or simply Tarantino being Tarantino? Does it help if you know the real life history? Someone argues it doesn't matter and the film still works.
- Nostalgia vs. narrative: does the film rely too heavily on vibes, or is that the point?
- We question whether OUATIH is a buddy film, a fairy tale, a love letter, or all of the above.
- The “Rick Dalton meltdown” scene — one of the great comedic acting moments of the decade?
- Which parts got combined and then split again on account of scheduling conflicts
- Who was supposed to be in the film if not for tragedy occurring?
- And finally, whether Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the Best Film Ever — or just Tarantino’s most beautifully crafted hangout movie.
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Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor
Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/
