--- title: "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" year: 2019 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood" fi1m_id: "once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood" imdb_id: "tt7131622" tmdb_id: 466272 wikidata_id: "Q47300912" fi1m_score: 77 critics_score: 85 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-09" updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:52.271976+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) Directed by Quentin Tarantino · 2h 42m · MPA R · Comedy, Drama, Thriller ## Identity Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood - **IMDb ID:** tt7131622 - **TMDB ID:** 466272 - **Wikidata ID:** Q47300912 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7131622/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/466272, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q47300912 **Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 85 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* Brad Pitt fixes an aerial with his shirt off and the film stops to watch; so, to be fair, did we > Tarantino’s slowest and kindest film is a long afternoon in 1969 Los Angeles with two men whose time is running out. It is too long and it looks away from things it should not, but the company is good and the city is lovely. ## Synopsis Los Angeles, 1969. Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) was the star of a television Western and is now the villain of the week on other people’s shows, drinking too much and wondering whether it is over. Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) is his stunt double, his driver and his only friend, living in a caravan behind a drive-in with his dog. Up the hill from Rick, the actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) has just moved in with her husband, the director Roman Polanski. Over a few days in February, Rick tries to get through a job on a Western pilot, Cliff gives a lift to a hitchhiker (Margaret Qualley) who lives on a ranch with some friends, and Sharon goes to the cinema. Quentin Tarantino writes and directs. ## Review Quentin Tarantino has made a film about two men who have been in the business a long time and can feel it ending. Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) starred in a television Western and now gets hired to lose fights to younger men on television. Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) was his stunt double and is now his driver. It is 1969, and up the hill from Rick’s house Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) has moved in with her husband, the director Roman Polanski. If you know what happened that August, you will spend the film waiting. This is a good film and a long one. At 162 minutes it dawdles, and for most of that time we were glad to be in the car. It is the warmest thing Tarantino has made and one of the least shaped, and two or three scenes are hard to defend. We recommend it, with those reservations. Barbara Ling has rebuilt a stretch of Los Angeles that no longer exists. There is a shot at dusk where the neon along the boulevard comes on sign by sign as the cars pass beneath it. Robert Richardson shoots the streets from low and from moving cars, in gold and dusty light, so the city looks the way people who grew up there insist it did. Arianne Phillips keeps Cliff in the same jeans and Hawaiian shirt for a week, and it suits him. There is no composer. The songs come off the car radio, adverts and jingles left in, and the radio places the film in its year better than any caption could. DiCaprio has never been better at being bad at something. Rick is a decent actor who knows he is not a great one, and the film’s middle follows him through a day on a Western pilot, opposite Timothy Olyphant’s Jim Stacy, fluffing his lines and then screaming at himself in his trailer. A child co-star (Julia Butters, as Trudi Fraser, more serious about the work than anyone there) sits beside him between takes and talks to him as a colleague, and later tells him something kind. We were moved more than we expected, and Butters did it: she says the line straight, with no sense that she is comforting him, and DiCaprio’s face does the rest. Pitt has the easier part and knows it. Cliff wants nothing, feeds his dog, and fixes Rick’s aerial with his shirt off while the film stops to watch. Then he gives a lift to a girl called Pussycat (Margaret Qualley) and drives her out to the ranch where she lives, and the film changes temperature. Cliff insists on saying hello to the old man who owns the place (Bruce Dern, as George Spahn), and Dakota Fanning stands on the porch and tells him no. Fred Raskin cuts the walk to the house so slowly that we were frightened for a man we had not thought could be hurt. It is the best sequence in the film. The problems are real. Robbie’s Sharon Tate is given almost nothing to say; she dances, drives, buys a book, and sits in a cinema watching an audience enjoy her. It is lovely, and it is all there is; a film this long could have found her a conversation. Mike Moh plays Bruce Lee as a braggart who exists to make Cliff look good, and we winced at a real man being used as a punchline. Cliff has a thing in his past that the film raises and then shrugs off as a joke, and wants us to shrug too. And there are twenty minutes in the middle that Raskin could have lost. The last half hour is where the film has been heading, and we will not say what happens, except that it is loud, it earns its 18 certificate, and it left us laughing and uneasy at once. The film is pleased with itself about it; we were less sure. Against Tarantino’s own work it is gentler than [*Inglourious Basterds*](https://film.one/film/inglourious-basterds) and [*The Hateful Eight*](https://film.one/film/the-hateful-eight), and closest in mood to [*Jackie Brown*](https://film.one/film/jackie-brown), which was better built. Watch it on an evening with nothing after it. If you are checking the clock at the hour mark, it will not win you back. *Fi1m score 77, published 9 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and a good number like it a great deal. The praise clusters around two things: Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, whose easy chemistry as a fading television actor and his stunt double comes up in nearly every review, and the recreation of 1969 Los Angeles, from the production design down to the music choices. Many describe it as Tarantino’s most relaxed and mature film, a hangout picture rather than a plot, and several rank it alongside his strongest work. The reservations are about length and shape. Even admirers call it baggy, indulgent and slow in patches, and a few feel the final third’s lurch into violence breaks the mood the rest of the film has built; The Playlist puts it in exactly those terms. The Guardian and The Ringer go further, faulting how the film treats its women and the Manson history it rewrites. The spread runs from lukewarm to rapturous, with no review outright negative. ## Straight answers **Is Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood worth watching?** *Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood* is worth watching for anyone with a free evening and a fondness for actors in good company, and we scored it 77. It is Tarantino's warmest film and one of his least shaped: 162 minutes that dawdle, with twenty minutes in the middle that could go. If you are checking the clock at the hour mark, it will not win you back. **How long is Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, and what is it rated?** *Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood* runs 2h 42m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a comedy and drama film. **Where can I watch Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood in the US?** *Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood* is streaming on Hulu in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $3.99. It leaves Hulu on 25 September. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, and is it suitable for children?** *Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood* carries an 18 certificate in the UK and is not suitable for children. Most of it is gentle, an afternoon of driving and talking, but the last half hour is loud and violent enough to earn the rating, and a slow walk up to a ranch house frightened us more than we expected. Teenagers and the squeamish should know that the ending arrives hard. **How does Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood compare to The Long Goodbye?** *Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood* and [*The Long Goodbye*](https://film.one/film/the-long-goodbye) both wander the same Los Angeles hills a few years apart, but Altman's is the tighter, sadder film and the one we would send a stranger to first. Tarantino's is longer, kinder and more pleased with itself, and it ends in noise where Altman's ends in a shrug. Choose Tarantino for the company and the city, Altman for a detective nobody listens to. **What should I watch after Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood?** After *Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood*, try [*The Long Goodbye*](https://film.one/film/the-long-goodbye) (1973, Fi1m 86): Altman’s Marlowe wanders the same hills a few years later and nobody listens to him. Then [*Jackie Brown*](https://film.one/film/jackie-brown) (1997, Fi1m 83): Tarantino’s other patient film, with better shape and a Pam Grier worth waiting for; and [*Hail, Caesar!*](https://film.one/film/hail-caesar) (2016, Fi1m 72): The Coens’ studio comedy, shorter, sillier and just as fond of the old machinery. ### Reviews we read (19) - **Evening Standard**, David Sexton (5/5): The film is a leisurely, enjoyable homage to old Hollywood with wonderful performances, amazing period detail and sensational violence in the finale, serving as an extraordinary career summation even if not a career best. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/cannes-2019-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-a-sensationally-violent-extraordinary-career-summation-a4142946.html) - **Radio Times**, Terry Staunton (5/5): Tarantino fires on all cylinders in this playful and daring Tinseltown tale that is arguably the most character-driven entry in his CV. The critic singles out the standout performances, especially DiCaprio as the declining star, and the visual splendour for praise. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino-brad-pitt-leonardo-dicaprio-margot-robbie/) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): Quentin Tarantino has made his masterpiece, a monumental leap ahead of his recent work that is better than Pulp Fiction. It praises the sun-kissed evocation of 1969 Hollywood, meticulous production design and the film’s deeper themes around violence and cinematic dreams. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-love-letter-to-cinema-is-a-masterpiece-pk9v2tpx8) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (60/100, inferred): The director’s love letter to 1960s Hollywood, where all women are stereotypes and white men the real victims, disturbs and dazzles in equal measure. It praises the meticulous period details, music choices and cinematography while faulting the baggy structure, indulgences and provocative handling of certain themes. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/aug/18/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino-leonardo-dicaprio-brad-pitt) - **Empire**, Ian Freer: The film is a likeable buddy movie with brilliant performances and gorgeous filmmaking that celebrates Tarantino's obsessions, but it lacks the zip and intensity of his best work and feels more mature and less showy. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-2/) - **Screen Daily**: The critic calls the film funny, revisionist and unexpectedly warm-hearted, with terrific performances from Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio that give it wider appeal. It praises the beautiful craft and real affection for Los Angeles of the director's youth. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/once-upon-a-time--in-hollywood-cannes-review/5139676.article) - **Sight and Sound**, Adam Nayman: The critic finds the film an always watchable and at times intensely enjoyable auteurist excursion that indulges in nostalgic fetishes and liberties with history. It praises the luminous recreation of late-1960s Hollywood but notes the film leaves less of a residue than its predecessors. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/once-upon-time-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino-unleashes-his-nostalgic-fetishes) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The film is uneven and unwieldy in structure with some flat patches, but it is a disarming and subversive love letter to late-1960s Hollywood that lovingly recreates the era while rewriting the traumatic Manson episode. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-cannes-2019-1212805/) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (Critic’s Pick): The film is Tarantino’s most relaxed movie, a hangout buddy picture about two mid-level entertainment workers in 1969 Los Angeles. It overflows with love for movies, TV, and period details while centering the friendship between Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review.html) - **Total Film**: Tarantino’s most heartfelt and emotionally mature work since Jackie Brown. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review/) - **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri: The film is a seductive, ramshackle '60s pastiche and pipe dream that celebrates recreating and rewriting the past, with strong performances from DiCaprio and Pitt and a brilliant, euphoric climax. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino.html) - **Den of Geek**, Lou Thomas (5/5): The critic calls it a brilliant, borderline masterpiece and Tarantino’s best since Jackie Brown. They single out the hangout-movie vibe, stellar performances (especially DiCaprio, Pitt and Robbie), and loving recreation of 1969 Hollywood for praise. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-a-storming-tinseltown-fairytale/) - **/Film**, Jason Gorber (9.5/10): Tarantino has made a profound, silly, and sublime masterwork that imagines an alternate outcome for the Manson murders while evoking the societal changes of the late 1960s. The film is praised for its magnificent lead performances by DiCaprio and Pitt, stunning production design, and rich thematic exploration of Hollywood mythmaking. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/566577/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review/) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it Tarantino’s most personal and best film, a love letter to 1960s Los Angeles centered on friendship and loyalty between DiCaprio and Pitt’s characters. They single out the strong performances, especially from the leads, and the meticulous recreation of the era. [Read](https://deadline.com/video/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino-leonardo-dicaprio-brad-pitt-margot-robbie/) - **NME**, Greg Wetherall (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it Tarantino’s most satisfying and well-rounded work in decades, with maturity, emotional investment, and thrilling set pieces. They single out the chemistry between Pitt and DiCaprio and the exhilarating final third for praise. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/upon-time-hollywood-film-review-tarantinos-satisfying-work-decades-2491225) - **The Wrap**, Steve Pond (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as big, brash, ridiculous, too long, and ultimately invigorating, a playful homage to 1960s pop culture and Hollywood. They praise the chemistry between DiCaprio and Pitt and the film's contemplative take on a director's place in a changing industry. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-film-review-quentin-tarantino-leonardo-dicaprio-brad-pitt/) - **The Playlist**, Guy Lodge (B): The film is Tarantino's most fluid and luxuriously entertaining work in years, a gorgeously lacquered hangout movie full of nostalgia for 1960s LA and strong chemistry between DiCaprio and Pitt. It is ultimately disrupted in its final third by a berserk shift that breaks the woozy spell and introduces ideas of toxic masculinity and heroism. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/once-upon-time-in-hollywood-cannes-review-20190521/) - **The Ringer**, Lindsay Zoladz (65/100, inferred): The critic views the film primarily as a nostalgic, loose hangout bromance centered on the charming, offbeat chemistry between DiCaprio and Pitt as Rick and Cliff. It praises the detailed recreation of late-’60s LA and the revisionist fantasy elements but notes the film skirts tougher questions about violence against women and Hollywood history. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2019/07/29/movies/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino) - **Digital Spy**, Ian Sandwell (60/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a sprawling, indulgent ode to a Golden Age that is overlong and meandering yet lovingly crafted and brilliantly acted. It singles out the strong DiCaprio-Pitt chemistry and period detail for praise while noting the weaker Manson subplot and pacing issues as drawbacks. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a28536552/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino/) ## Details - **Director:** Quentin Tarantino - **Director:** Quentin Tarantino - **Writer:** Quentin Tarantino - **Cinematography:** Robert Richardson - **Editor:** Fred Raskin - **Production design:** Barbara Ling - **Costume design:** Arianne Phillips - **Producer:** David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino - **Cast:** Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton; Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth; Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate; Emile Hirsch as Jay Sebring; Margaret Qualley as 'Pussycat'; Timothy Olyphant as Jim Stacy; Julia Butters as Trudi Fraser; Austin Butler as 'Tex' - **Runtime:** 2h 42m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 26 July 2019 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama, Thriller - **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2019); [BAFTA Best Film winners](https://film.one/collections/bafta-best-film.md) (Nominee, 2019); [Golden Globe Best Musical or Comedy winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-comedy.md) (Winner, 2019) - **Budget:** $95 million - **Box office:** $394 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKgITiP1UMg ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, uhd, leaving 2026-09-25 - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, uhd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2020: Best Picture (nominated); Best Production Design (won); Best Supporting Actor (won) ## If you liked this - *Shampoo* (1975): Warren Beatty’s Los Angeles on the eve of 1968, sadder and randier than this. - *The Long Goodbye* (1973), Fi1m 86: Altman’s Marlowe wanders the same hills a few years later and nobody listens to him. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-long-goodbye.md) - *Jackie Brown* (1997), Fi1m 83: Tarantino’s other patient film, with better shape and a Pam Grier worth waiting for. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/jackie-brown.md) - *Day for Night* (1973): Truffaut on a film set, where the work is the point and everyone is tired. - *Hail, Caesar!* (2016), Fi1m 72: The Coens’ studio comedy, shorter, sillier and just as fond of the old machinery. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hail-caesar.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. 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