There's a scene early on in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that perfectly captures a moment in time. Cliff Booth, the stuntman played by Brad Pitt, drives a convertible down an L.A. highway to his home in a trailer behind a drive in movie theater. The combination of the radio blaring 60s commercials and hits, the camera angles, the roaring engine, the peculiar acoustics of a parking lot full of drive-in movie speakers, creates an immersive experience. It's a wonderful moment, the best evocation of a summer night's drive since American Graffiti . Like that movie, it is transporting us to an idealized version of a lost world. In this case it is Hollywood in 1969. Tarantino is my age. I have no doubt that, like me, the one time enfant terrible of Hollywood is beginning to notice the first signs of rust as he moves toward the far side of middle age. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is elgiac in tone; its hero is past his prime
"You must watch their shadows, not the puppets." - Billy Kwan, The Year of Living Dangerously.