Glenn Kelly

Impressive film.I do wonder about its credibility as a Best Pictue nominee. I failed to connect with the emotional power of its story. I tried reminding myself of the gravitas of a truly heroic tale but why didn’t it feel like that. I felt Revenant II was unfolding.Has their ever been a War picture with less military presence? Every frame is fraught with peril in the harshest conditions in a heroic pursuit. You want these guys to be heroes but their everyman chops seem to be lacking.Getting the actors to perform up to their characters story seemed a challenge. Mendez kept framing the Boys in a heroic light only to immediately drown them in War. To Mendez’s credit the film focuses more on the planning and results of War rather on combat. The field hospitals and the constant stream of litter after litter of causalities was exceded only by the amount of dead and decaying bodies of dogs,horses and soldiers.Bodies were not afforded even the dignity of death laying in open mud pits in various stages of decay as monster rats the size you haven’t seen since the Princess Bride feasted along with just as enormous black birds. As an anti-war message it was powerful. That might be worth the price of the tickets alone.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is exactly what it sounds like - A Fairy Tale. This jaded viewer dreaded the ending knowing the tragic finality involving the real life insanity of the Charlie Manson Family. Watching Margot Robbie portray the always beautiful Sharon Tate who is beyond dangerously naive to the evil of the streets of Los Angeles was terrifying. Did she really pick up that many hitchhikers? It turns out Quentin Tarantino’s story never can stop taking us all for a ride. Through Hollywood streets and boulevards we race. Along the beaches and through the canyons of Southern California we drive with abandon and the never ending soundtrack of LA Radio. We meet Tate’s neighbors Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio)a soon to be B-Movie actor once upon a time and his personal stunt double, house sitter,handyman and most importantly driver, Cliff Booth( Brad Pitt). The relationship of the two friends reminds us all of how close we are to the end of our stories than we are ever prepared for. As great of a “love letter to old Hollywood” as this film has been portrayed by the Hollywood press it is a better fable. Tarantino’s ending to the movie is the most pleasantly stunned I’ve been since ... forever. It reminded me of Hollywood magic the likes we seldom see. It is indeed a modern Fairy Tale able to alter reality with the greatest of all fairy tale questions-What IF it had really happened that way?