by Nathaniel R
Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood was difficult to write about. That's what happens with dense movies. Naturally, then, my review left out something major. It was only after publishing it that I realized I hadn't even mentioned the extended scene that is the movie's most impressive on a filmmaking level. I'm talking about the significant detour when Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) visits Spahn's Movie Ranch. He used to shoot a TV show there a decade earlier but it's now Manson Family territory, thanks to the retired and now blind George Spahn (Bruce Dern)...
Spahn is paid for his hospitality with sexual services from Squeaky Fromme (Dakota Fanning, in a blisteringly hostile performance). When Booth arrives he refuses to leave without seeing the old man, to check if he's okay since the "family" feels a little "off" to the stuntman. This stubborn suspicious demand makes him instantly unwelcome. You fear at any moment that the screen might erupt with violence.
The amount of tension and suspense Tarantino conjures in this sequence, with a ton of moving parts within a single location, but not much happening narratively beyond waiting by a door is something only masters can do. But, in truth, it almost felt like it belonged to a separate movie. A more straightforward true story thriller experience than the one Tarantino otherwise delivered.
Which raises an interesting question that I hope you'll answer in the comments. Which scenes, like this one did for me, have made you imagine a whole different or companion movie off to the side of the one you've actually seen? Did you long to be in that other movie instead or did it just make the one you watched feel richer?