Whenever I watch movies about the movie industry, I always feel like it’s a story being told for insiders by insiders. And no one else should really be watching. I call it LA insider trading…

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Quentin Tarantino’s latest turn at LA insider trading…

Story: Rick Dalton is a veteran Hollywood actor struggling with the possibility that his career may be coming to an end. He spends most of his day with his stunt double, Cliff Booth. The rest of the story is a series of random encounters that lead to nothing.

Did Rick Dalton’s career rebound? Did it die? Did the story make us care? No might be the right answer to all of those questions…

While Quentin Tarantino isn’t necessarily known to be the most prolific story teller, his movies are colorful… in many OTHER ways…

Performances: Leonardo DiCaprio plays Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt plays Cliff Booth. Neither of these performances offer any challenges to the quality of either actor’s previous body of work. Margot Robbie also stars as Sharon Tate but I’m at a loss to define what the character offers. And any film with Al Pacino gets his mention, but, …

No character in this film broke through. Nothing Oscar-worthy here…

Visual: This is normally where Quentin Tarantino shines. Not this time. With exception of one signature scene of guts and gore, this film captures the look of 1969 and that’s it. this film is exactly as describes at the beginning of this review… LA insider trading…

Rating: C-. I’m stopping just short of giving it a deficient grade because it will have value to someone in Los Angeles. But the rest of us who don’t work in the movie industry were given no reason to care.

It took me a week to get through this movie. Streaming. You be the judge…