Tarantino’s ‘Hollywood’ Rocks Cannes in First Reactions: ‘Brilliant,’ ‘Dazzling,’ and One ‘Holy Fuck’ Ending
Zack Sharf
The first screenings of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” have touched down at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and the reactions coming in from film critics and the press are mostly ecstatic. Considerable praise is being directed towards Brad Pitt, whose last leading role was the 2017 Netflix movie “War Machine.”
“Hollywood” reunites Tarantino with his “Django Unchained” and “Inglourious Basterds” actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, respectively. The two star as a popular television actor and his stuntman trying to break big in the Hollywood movie business during the changing era of 1969. DiCaprio and Pitt’s characters live next door to Sharon Tate (played by DiCaprio’s “Wolf of Wall Street” co-star Margot Robbie), who is also trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood. Everyone’s fates get mixed up with Charles Manson and his cult. The supporting cast includes Al Pacino, Dakota Fanning, Lena Dunham, Bruce Dern, Luke Perry, Kurt Russell, and more.
The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw raves, “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.”
Sony Pictures will release “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in theaters nationwide July 26. Check out a handful of first reactions from the Cannes Film Festival below.
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
#OnceUponATimeInHollywood: Quentin Tarantino wants to tell us a story about Hollywood life at the time of the Manson Family slayings of ’69, and man, does he ever, going from awestruck to WTF. Brad Pitt the standout, his coolest role yet. #Cannes2019 pic.twitter.com/WgJywDPW9i
— Peter Howell (@peterhowellfilm) 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
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: Tarantino wasn’t joking when he said this was the closest to PULP FICTION that he has come. He juggles a mosaic of characters and story-lines in this one, eventually stringing them together for a relentlessly playful and touching finale. #Cannes2019
— Jordan Ruimy @ Cannes (@mrRuimy) 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 – 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
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD is absurdly baggy and often careless in its treatment of people who deserve better. But individual scenes zing like nobody’s business and the ambience is delicious. A significant improvement on HATEFUL EIGHT. #cannes2019 #OnceUponATimeinHollywood
— 🥃Donald Clarke📽 (@DonaldClarke63) 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
To be completely honest I’m not yet sure what to make of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Need to let this one marinate, don’t have an instant reaction. Most of the film is pretty good, I’m having fun watching them play around in late 60s Hollywood. Then the finale is HOLY FUCK.
— Alex Billington @ Cannes (@firstshowing) May 21, 2019
#PremiereReview once upon a time in Hollywood: the most enjoyable and cerebral Tarantino for some time Brad Pitt steals show as stuntman. Might need some tightening up in the February sequence in the edit before release but the August pay off is huge pic.twitter.com/yRUV6XPmjq
— Kaleem Aftab (@aftabamon) 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
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
There will be many, many hot takes to come on the new Tarantino but I don’t mind letting mine cool off on the counter a little longer. I know it’s more relaxed than I was expecting, and that DiCaprio is terrific, funny and poignant. The rest, I’m gonna mull over. #Cannes2019
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 21, 2019
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD is more languorous and luminous than anything Tarantino has done before. Radiant w/ affection for Los Angeles and the movies. Ambles and drags but pleasantly so. Pitt & DiCaprio are fabulous, Pitt especially. I could watch them drive around LA a lot.
— Jake Coyle (@jakecoyleAP) May 21, 2019
