On assignment for Looper.com, Tim talked with “Thanksgiving” writer-director Eli Roth about the faux “Grindhouse” trailer-turned movie.
Recalling how the film version was set in motion, Roth said, “Over the years, the fans kept nagging me, but we had no story. Once we saw the Black Friday trampling videos that were going viral, [we thought about it]. Every year, there were videos of these superstores and their midnight Black Friday sales of people who, a few hours earlier, were so thankful but now wanted to crush each other to death for a waffle iron. That was when we said, ‘There’s something really here. This is fertile ground.’ It gave the movie a theme and a reason to exist, and that’s when it started in earnest.”
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for the “Tom Barnard Morning Show Podcast,” “Adam & Jordana” with Adam Carter and Jordana Green on WCCO Radio, “It Matters with Kelly Cordes” on WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere, and reviews streaming programming on WCCO Radio’s “Adam & Jordana” as well. On TV, Tim has previously made hundreds of guest appearances on NBC affiliate KARE on the news program “KARE 11 News at 11” and hundreds of appearances on “The KQ Morning Show” with Tom Barnard on KQRS-FM.
On assignment for Looper.com, Tim talked with legendary actor Harvey Keitel about his new film “Lansky.” Head over to Tim’s interview page on Looper to read the interview or click the link above or below:
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show” with Tom Barnard on KQRS-FM, “Paul and Jordana” with Paul Douglas and Jordana Green on WCCO Radio, “It Matters with Kelly Cordes” on WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “Let’s Talk Movies with Tim Lammers” with Tim Matthews on KRWC-AM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere, and reviews streaming programming on WCCO Radio’s “Paul and Jordana” as well. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on NBC affiliate KARE on the news program “KARE 11 News at 11”.
Clearly made as a love letter to the La La landscape of the late 1960s, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” is a surprisingly tame entry in writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s otherwise wild body of work as a filmmaker. It proves that Tarantino’s love for the end of the Golden Era in Hollywood is warm and fuzzy, but when its framed as a feature film, perhaps “Once Upon a Time” is warm and fuzzy to a fault. In short, the film lacks the Tarantino bite we associate with the inventive filmmaker until its third act, leaving in its wake several bland moments during the first hour and a half of the film.
“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” is largely about TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his longtime stuntman-turned-personal assistant Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) as Rick begins to realize his downslide as lead actor who is now largely relegated guest shots as “the heavy” on episodic television. Of course, Rick and Cliff are fictional characters in Tarantino’s “Hollywood,” but much like writer-director did with “Inglorious Basterds,” he drops the characters in among real-life figures and settings to construct what becomes a revisionist tale set over nine months in 1969 Hollywood.
AUDIO: Hear Tim review “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” with Jordana Green and guest host Todd Walker on “The Paul and Jordana Show” on WCCO-AM. Segment brought to you by Mike Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant.
Most prominent of the real-life figures portrayed are actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), who cruelly met her fate while eight-months pregnant along with friend/Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring (Emile Hirsch) and two others at the hands of the murderous Manson family on Aug. 9, 1969. Tate’s husband, director Roman Polanski (Polish actor Rafal Zawierucha) is also featured briefly in a few fleeting scenes, while Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) only turns up once in the whole film.
A slow burn set over 2 hours and 41 minutes that eventually rolls up to the private neighborhood where members of the Manson family plan to kill Tate and Polanski, a restrained Tarantino holds off on his penchant for excessive screen violence until late into the third act. Before that, the other razzmatazz identified with the two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker is spread out in inspired bits and pieces throughout the first 90 minutes.
Among them is a charming (and in retrospect, heartbreaking) scene where Tate sits in a Hollywood theater to soak in the reaction to her work in Dean Martin’s Matt Helm adventure comedy “The Wrecking Crew”; and another where Kurt Russell’s producer character become a wreck on the set of a movie where Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) squares off against Cliff in a backlot in one of film’s funniest moments. Perhaps the biggest scene stealer is Julia Butters (TV’s “American Wife”), who plays a precocious 8-year-old actor (don’t call her “actress”), who puts Rick back on his heels as they’re preparing to film scenes for a TV Western (Butters brilliantly holds her own against DiCaprio in not one but two scenes).
To be sure, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” is a nostalgic ride down memory lane for Tarantino as he expertly recreates the look and atmosphere of Tinseltown in the late 1960s, which not surprisingly has pop music hits of the era woven within. But it’s also a ride that may leave fans of his previous work feeling short-changed, especially for the lumbering first 90 minutes the film.
In short, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” is the most un-Tarantino film Tarantino has ever done – at least until its final 45 minutes. The tension begins to ramp up when Cliff tries to visit his old colleague George Spahn (Bruce Dern) on the Spahn Movie Ranch, a once-viable filming location that is now suspiciously populated by a “community” of Charles Manson followers. It’s there where the Manson Family is plotting out its final steps to murder Tate, who is 8 months pregnant, along with Polanski.
Effectively “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” is a 2 hour, 41 minute exercise in wish fulfillment that gives Tarantino – who has long been able to make films carte blanche in Tinseltown – the means to play around in the era of filmmaking (or in this case, TV show making) that he clearly adores.
A sort of insider’s look at the making of TV shows in the late ‘60s (and digitally swapping in Rick for Steve McQueen in “The Great Escape” ), “Once Upon a Time” even gives Tarantino the opportunity to step back in time onto sets to produce classic Westerns through the lens of such directors (turned actor) as Sam Wanamaker. He even peppers the film with several cameos, including Damian Lewis as The King of Cool Steve McQueen and Dakota Fanning in a small but unnerving turn as Manson family member Squeaky Fromme. All but squandered is Al Pacino as agent pushing Rick toward making Spaghetti Westerns; and notably absent is Samuel L. Jackson, who has been a frequent collaborator of Tarantino’s since 1994’s “Pulp Fiction.”
AUDIO: Hear Tim review “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show” on KQRS-FM. Segment brought to you by Mike Bryant and Bradshaw & Bryant.
With DiCaprio, Pitt and Robbie turning in good but not great performances, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” will be remembered as a star-powered film that was a victim of its own hype. Just like the shiny veneer the real Hollywood gives off, the film is ultimately more about looks than it is substance, and thin veil in this case almost completely hides the ugliness of the industry.
Luckily for fans, while Tarantino gets waylaid on his trip back in time, there’s no doubt a ton of satisfaction to be had when the writer-director gives his twisty take on one of the most shocking crimes Hollywood has ever seen to conclude the film. It’s one of the few tales in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” that’s worth telling over and over. The rest you can close the book on.
Lammometer: 6 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for “The KQ92 Morning Show,” WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere. On TV, Tim has made hundreds of guest appearances on “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC).
It’s hard to get behind a movie where most everybody is hateful, especially one that is nearly three hours long. But that’s the case of Quentin Tarantino’s whacked-out Western “The Hateful Eight,” a movie typical of the controversial filmmaker’s style of excessive, graphic and sometimes downright perverted violence, talky dialogue and the liberal use of the N-word. Tarantino clearly wants to think of himself in the hall of great filmmakers throughout history with this attempt at a cinematic epic, but instead succeeds at remaining a legend in his own mind.
At 2 hours, 49 minutes, the wide release version of the film (his 70mm “Roadshow” version is even longer, and includes an overture and intermission), the biggest thing working against “The Hateful Eight” is it unnecessarily excessive length. The long and short of it is, the film surrounds the plight of eight characters (did I call them hateful?) who are forced to live in closed quarters with each other during a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Wyoming anywhere from 6-12 years after the end of the Civil War. Holed up in a lodge called Minnie’s Haberdashery, all eight of the characters have an extreme distrust of each other and their possible hidden motives, raising the tension level so high that it’s quite apparent that not everyone is going to make it out alive before the blizzard lets up.
One of them, the bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell), believes the prisoner he’s taking to Red Rock to hang — the murderous Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) — is in cahoots with at least one of the people in the cabin, and they’re plotting her escape and killing everybody else in the process. Also in the lodge is the former Civil War hero-turned-bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), former Confederate General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) and the presumed sheriff of Red Rock (where Daisy will hang) Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). Rounding out the “hateful eight” are the shifty innkeeper Bob (Demien Bichir), and two other travelers – the cowboy Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) and hangman Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth).
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There’s no doubt Tarantino has a few unique ideas in The Hateful Eight” and assembled a terrific cast for the film, and standing out among them is Leigh, who appears to be reveling in the shameless, vitriol-spewing ways of Daisy. Goggins is also great as Mannix, who has most character arc. Russell is also great as the grizzled bounty hunter who would probably be likable if he didn’t smack Daisy around so much or hurl the N-word with reckless abandon. But because he does, he’s hateful, too.
Tarantino’s biggest problem is he believes in his own hype and simply doesn’t know when to stop. Perhaps the biggest issue is the inclusion, once again, of “real” dialogue, featuring characters having mundane conversations with one-another. Hey, a bit of reality is great, but it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that it’s also monotonous, pointless chatter that does nothing to move the story along. The movie would have been a lot better an hour shorter.
Not surprisingly, “The Hateful Eight” gets preachy, too, broaching political issues. Tarantino obviously likes to stir the pot, whether it’s with his N-word-filled dialogue, or off-camera with his inflammatory rhetoric against New York City police officers. In this film, clearly the guy isn’t afraid to say or demonstrate anything through his “vision,” including the repeated beatings of a woman and a sick scene of sexual violence and humiliation (told in flashback) perpetrated by one of the eight. Of course, both targets of the hate have questionable backgrounds, which apparently makes Tarantino think it’s OK to brutalize them.
The question is why, after eight films, does the filmmaker continue to do it? If anything, the three hours of “The Hateful Eight” will give its viewers enough time to think about why they keep letting this guy off the hook. True, his “Pulp Fiction” was revolutionary for its time, but since he’s been giving us the same flavors — some tasty, some bitter, some vile — packaged in different ways. It’s time to shake up the formula, Quentin.
Original Interviews, Reviews & More By Tim Lammers
