MOVIE REVIEW By Ron Wynn
The Belcourt Theatre will be the only place in Nashville cinephiles can see the new Quentin Tarantino production “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” in 35 mm, the most visually spectacular and dazzling manner. The long-awaited work which offers Tarantino’s vision of late ‘60s Holllywood and the impact of the Manson family and its horros, debuts Thursday. Only a select number of theaters across the nation are getting the opportunity to present “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” in the manner that Tarantino envisions it, and both the Thursday at 7:20 p.m. and Friday night at 7 p.m. showings are already sold out. But other showings will continue from Saturday through August 1, after which more showtimes will be revealed.
“Once Upon A Time” focuses on the life of onetime star actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo Di Caprio). He initially rose to fame by starring in a hit ‘50s western, but is now struggling with how Hollywood has changed. He’s struggling to find work, and is spending most of his time just hanging out with best friend and stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). But Dalton also happens to live next door to the star couple of director Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), and that’s destined to become something that links him to a monumental tragedy.
That Tarantino has promised “something original” in this production has a lot of folks wondering exactly what that means. The teaming of Pitt and DiCaprio is also greatly anticipated, and while the story of what happened is well known, it will be quite intriguing to see what Tarantino has to offer on it, and particularly to see if he’s as creative thematically as visually utilizing the 35mm technology. In a summer season that doesn’t exactly have a host of big ticket or high expectation presentations, “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” looms among the most eagerly awaited and most anticipated. Additional showtimes are available by checking the Belcourt website at www.belcourt.org.
“Spider-Man” once again tops the box office
For a second straight week, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” was perched atop the box office, even though it had a 51 percent drop for the opening week. But it’s still comfortably atop the box office list, grossing over $45 million ($45.300,000) for the weekend. “Toy Story 4” is in second place by a considerable margin, grossing over $20 million ($20, 665,000). The highest grossing new film was “Crawl,” which had right at $12 million. A second new film “Stuber” was fourth with a little over eight million ($8,043,000). “Yesterday” rounded out the Top 5, finishing with nearly seven million ($6,750,000).
The rest of the Top 10 were holdover films, with “Aladdin in sixth ($5, 873,000), “Annabelle Comes Home” in seventh ($5,550,000), “Midsommar” in eighth ($3,551, 571), “The Secret Life of Pets” in ninth ($3,100,000) and “Men In Black International” in tenth place ($2,215,000).
An encouraging note is the performance of “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” which remains in the Top 20. It actually jumped two spots to 16, though its numbers aren’t nearly those of a Holllywood blockbuster, either i total ($3,336, 797) or for the week ($361, 613). But the fact it’s even in the Top 20 is certainly a good thing, and hopefully those who haven’t yet seen it will do so.
