Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood

Don’t read anything about it. Don’t talk to anyone about it. Just go see “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Let the movie surprise you.

Before catching it this week, I heard it was Quentin Tarantino’s ninth and latest film. I heard it starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. I heard it was about a fading TV star and a stuntman in 1960s Hollywood.

That was enough for me.

I am not a huge Tarantino fan. But the subject and the era of this new one made me want to see it.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” is Tarantino’s best movie and I expect it to be up for Oscars in the next round of Academy Award nominations.

A Movie-Star Movie: Allied

Looking to escape from the reality of the news and the cold weather this weekend? Then let me recommend the movie, “Allied.”

This is a big, old-fashioned, movie-star kind of movie about a Canadian agent, played by Brad Pitt, and a French resistance fighter, played by Marion Cotillard, who meet on a joint assignment in Casablanca during World War 2, fall in love, and carry out their mission. And there is a whole lot more to the story.

Director Robert Zemeckis, who made “Romancing the Stone,” “Back to the Future,” and “Cast Away,” gives this picture scope and drive and tension. He also showcases his stars the way Hollywood did during its Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s. But the R-rated violence, sexuality, and language is 21st century.