Not only the year , but the decade comes to a close . We saw some wonderful stories being told in a versatile fashion . A whodunit, romance, action-thriller or a mind boggling psychological thriller, we saw it all. Talking about the year, there were some amazing movies which came and conquered .
That being said , this article is my personal but brief take on what I consider the best movie to come out this year. Director Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood which is also being touted as his second last film should be considered nothing short of a technically brilliant comedy drama. Since the movie is a Quentin movie, you do get your satisfying load of violence but not just for the sake of it. The movie stars one of the rarest pairings of Hollywood Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and it’s a sheer delight to watch them together. Being an experienced director, Quentin fleshes out the best from both the actors. He casted them in a role to play to their strengths. While Leo is involved more with the acting heavy lifting ,Pitt shows off his toned physique, style statement required for his so called ”Pretty Stuntman” role . The duo’s camaraderie is explained as “More than a brother , little less than a wife”. Margot Robbie plays the vital role of veteran actress Sharon Tate. Now, an avid cinephile might just wonder why would someone like Tarantino show the actress for a wholesome 40 minutes in the movie without any promising connection to the movie’s leads ? Is this some kind of posthumous performance dedicated to the late actress ? The answer of all these questions lies in the climax of the movie.
For anyone who knows the history about the death of Sharon Tate by the hands of the members of The Manson Family would certainly get an idea where the film’s plot is going. The appearance of Manson himself , a very extensive highlight of his cult onscreen gives the audience the idea that the climax would be nothing short of revisiting the horror that happened in late 60s. That is where Tarantino drives his car in the direction opposite to what audience thinks. He gives us a What-If ? kinda scenario of that night. What if those hippies decided to enter her neighbouring house and kill the other residents of Cielo Drive . The climax is the biggest strength of the movie providing the audience with their Tarantino experience which they paid for. It is nothing short of a nail biting finish. He played his cards just like he did in Inglorious Bastards where he distorted history by burning Hitler in a movie theatre .
The depiction of Los Angeles, the influence of films and the film industry during that time, it’s all there . The sheer detailing in the costumes and set is enough to make one realise Quentin’s love for cinema .
Like all his other movies , there are scenes which do not contribute greatly to the movie’s overall plot but do consume a whole big chunk of the run time. Those are the scenes which I felt were the most effective and had Leo’s Rick Dalton in them. We see Rick star as the antagonist of a TV western named Lancer, where he struggles to play the part in the beginning. The scene where Rick’s struggle gets real and when he later scolds and rants himself in his trailer are hilarious because of their off screen realistic approach . As a result , there’s another scene where he gives a comeback with a strong performance in the same role and believe me you just forget about the plot of the movie while watching him. There are numerous other character interactions between Rick,Cliff and Al Pacino’s fact spitting straightforward casting agent Marvin Schwarzs that leave you not maybe spellbound but interested .A fictional fight scene between the legendary Bruce Lee and Cliff Booth is more than enough for establishing the character of Rick’s stuntman while also providing an insight of his past.
Now many people may argue that The Irishman or Joker are clearly better than the stated movie. I do feel they both are some great movies produced in the decade but slightly second to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. The reason being, The Irishman is way too long and single toned throughout int’s runtime and is clearly not a new genre for Martin Scorsese . The movie does pack a true story but the last one hour isn’t that chilling or unsettling as one would think. Talking about unsettling, Joker surely had this year’s Oscar worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix . He delved deeper into this character study of the titular character but that was mostly the whole point of the movie . There weren’t as many plot points and it was also too single toned.
After all this is my just my take on what I consider the best movie of the year which might or might not get nominated at the academy awards , only time will tell . For what I do know is that the movie served it’s purpose greatly for me and I exited the theatre with good mood.
