Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

What if you went on an Easter egg hunt and it was ALL Easter eggs? It was literally a ball-pit of Easter eggs? Watching Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is so filled with shout-outs, clues, references, footnotes, and historical wink-winks it’s hard to pay attention to the plot. Thankfully, that plot lingers so glacially at times that you can always catch up if you need to. Most of this is a day-to-day, day-in-the-life tale -- set-dressed to death and lovingly made, but not “exciting” per se. The suspense comes from the historical context – the dread of knowing what happened to Sharon Tate et al. Most of that dread dissipates as filmmakers rewire history to manage expectations. Historically speaking, nothing is what it seems. Rewriting history is only worthwhile if it serves as catharsis. It’s hard to tell who benefits from the happy ending here. It’s more about the color of the costumes…

Toy Story 4

It’s beautifully made, of course. But it’s not SURPRISING the way the previous films are. Some of the plots and themes of the previous chapters are revisited here and the “villain” doesn’t really redeem herself in a significant way. While there’s some missed potential, the quality of the film-making is so high it would be like saying, “The minibar in my Rolls-Royce doesn’t hold enough ice.” It’s really an embarrassment of riches.