August 1, 2019 Page 5
Entertainment
Film Review
Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood
is a Glamorous Tale of the
’60s Gruesome End
By Morgan Rojas for Cinemacy
When watching a Quentin Tarantino film,
here’s what you can expect to see play out
in 35mm. You’ll find satire mixed with dark
humor, excessive violence, a large ensemble
cast of who’s who, and a killer soundtrack, to
name a few. His ninth (and possibly final?)
film, Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, is
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, Courtesy of Sony Pictures
classic Tarantino in the best way possible.
There are just enough surprises to make this
3-hour cinematic experience stand out among
his infamous repertoire.
Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood is
a love letter to the Los Angeles of 1969.
The hippie movement was infiltrating into
the status quo, movie stars still carried an
air of mystery, and the Playboy mansion
hosted the most banging pool parties. The
times may be calling for peace and love
but Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a
washed-up TV western star in a midlife
crisis, feels that his best years are behind
him. His former stuntman-turned-personal
assistant, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), echoes a
similar sentiment -- although he expresses
it in more controlled outbursts.
The duo’s woes are only one of the film’s
multiple parallel storylines. There’s Sharon
Tate’s (Margo Robbie) blossoming film career
and relationship with Roman Polanski (Rafal
Zawierucha), the rise of Charles Manson’s
(Damon Herriman) “family,” and other oneoffs.
Because the film is similar to Pulp
Fiction in some ways, fans of Tarantino’s
will appreciate his diversion from the traditional
linear storyline for a more inventive
and unique approach.
It’s undeniable that this cast is something
extraordinary. The dynamic between Di-
Caprio and Pitt is one of the most organic
relationships I’ve seen in a long time. They
achieve a certain soul-brother vibe that I can
only imagine occurs once in a great while.
Giving praise to the rest of the brilliant cast
would take too long, but some standouts
include Margaret Qualley as Manson flower
child Pussycat, Austin Butler as “the devil
himself” Tex, Al Pacino as the stereotypically
greasy Hollywood agent, and rising star
Julia Butters who plays an overly mature
child actor starring alongside Rick Dalton.
A near-perfect ensemble, many players here
have overlapped in previous films, the most
obvious being DiCaprio’s reunion with Robbie
(The Wolf of Wall Street), although their
shared screen time here unfortunately lasts
only a few minutes.
Perhaps it’s Tarantino’s own nostalgia
seeping into the script. Having grown up in
Los Angeles, the film feels very sentimental
and nostalgic of a time and place that holds a
special place in his heart. The local hotspots,
like Musso + Frank, El Coyote, Frolic Room
and even a loose reference to the theater that
he now owns, The New Beverly, all feel like
personal touches that Angelinos will fall in
love with when they see those landmarks
on screen.
There have been a lot of rumors swirling
around Tarantino’s ninth film. Some claim
it’s his last, others claim its sexist, but one
thing is certain: when the film premiered
at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, it
received a seven-minute standing ovation.
Selfishly, I hope that Once Upon a Time in…
Hollywood is not Tarantino’s last film -- but
if it is, he has gone out on top. •
Morgan Rojas
“If you just love movies enough,
you can make a good one.”
– Quentin Tarantino
Check It Out
NASA Mission to Uncover
Questions on Planetary Creation
By Tommy Vinh Bui, MLIS, Associate
Librarian, Inglewood Public Library
Summer’s waning, but you wouldn’t know
it from the sweltering temperatures and the
garish light that bathes the city around high
noon. The climes are nigh combustible and
I don’t stray too long out in the open lest
I start to wither and broil. I’m a constant
shade-seeker always in pursuit of a good
book and air conditioning. That usually
means a library is my ultimate and go-to
summer destination.
So come and cool down with some nononsense
knowledge acquisition in the stacks.
As a JPL Solar System Ambassador, I can’t
tout the Science section shelves enough.
Here you can delve into a whole galaxy of
resources to learn about the churning cosmos
above. Or mosey on up to the reference desk
and barrage our helpful librarians about
upcoming NASA projects. Projects like the
looming Lucy Mission...
The Lucy Mission’s objective is to learn
more about Jupiter’s bevy of asteroids that may
provide insight into the primordial material that
initially formed the outer planets. Contained
therein are tiny time capsules from the very
birth of our solar system approximately four
billion years ago. This is information that
can help us form a better understanding of
the complexities of the universe’s genesis.
The Trojan asteroids are primitive celestial
bodies that wield significant clues critical
to our understanding of the origins of life
and organic material on our own earth. The
first NASA project ever to study the Trojans,
the Lucy Mission space probe will be an
ambitious and monumental achievement in
space exploration.
The mission is named in honor of the
first fossilized human ancestor that was so
instrumental to our understanding of our
genetic evolution. Lucy was, in turn, named
after the classic Beatle’s song “Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds.” The Lucy skeleton
yielded a wealth of information to scientists
about humanity’s origins. And very much
akin, the Lucy Mission will endow us with
incredible new perceptions to our planetary
provenance and the original development of
our solar system.
The Lucy Mission is slated to launch October
of 2021. Utilizing additional boosts from
earth’s gravity, Lucy will complete a complex
12-year trajectory to seven different asteroids.
This endeavor is particularly groundbreaking
as no space mission has ever been launched
to so varied a number of destinations of
independent orbit paths. Through multiple
flyby encounters and high-resolution image
instrumentation, Lucy will hopefully relay
consequential information about the diversity
of primordial materials that comprise our
planetary terrestrial bodies.
I can think of few better ways to while
away the summer. Rather than be formally
anaesthetized further with television and
mindless phone apps that test the limits of
thumb dexterity and brain elasticity, how about
binging on some science and space-related
developments? Crank up that Beatles track
and launch into a book about the inception
of existence. You might just stumble onto
some new inward insight that produces some
newfound profound wonder within.
The long and short of it: Get to the library
most ricky-tick. Summer’s nearly up and space
won’t wait to gobble up all your curiosity. •
Tommy Vinh Bui
Car Technology from front page
the AAA study to go back to the drawing
board and redesign infotainment systems
for simplicity. Specifically, the AAA thinks
carmakers should remove center console
controls and positioning system controls to
allow drivers to keep their eyes on the road.
These design changes “would better meet the
needs of older adults and make the systems
safer for all drivers,” Nelson said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control
reported that 7,400 older adults (aged 65-
plus) were killed and more than 290,000
were treated in emergency departments for
motor vehicle crash injuries in 2016. There
were almost 42 million licensed older drivers
that year, a 56 percent increase from 1999.
As cars get more complicated, seniors
can turn to mature driving improvement
programs offered by agencies and driving
schools that serve the growing population of
65-plus residents. Many of the programs and
phone numbers are listed at the Department
of Motor Vehicle web site by typing “mature
driver improvement courses” into the search
field. The DMV site is found at www.dmv.
ca.gov on the web. •
CLASSIFIED ADS – ONLY $40
for twenty words or less.
Email class@heraldpublications.com or call 310-322-1830 for more information.