Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood | 2019 | R | – 4.7.10

Why is “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout, some strong graphic violence, drug use, and sexual references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an offer of sex by a teen girl to an older man, a kiss, references to underage sex, and several cleavage revealing outfits; an extended scene of violence ending in the death of three people that includes a dog attack, an attack with a flame thrower and fighting with a lot of blood shown, a beating that ends with the beaten man’s very bloody face, a fight scene that ends with no visible injuries, and several TV and movie fight scenes and car chases; drug, alcohol and tobacco use throughout, and at least 100 F-words. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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In 1969 Los Angeles a fading TV star (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double (Brad Pitt) strive to revive their careers as Hollywood’s golden age is fast approaching an ignoble end. Also with Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Margaret Qualley, Dakota Fanning, Timothy Olyphant and Bruce Dern. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish, Italian and French without translation. [Running Time: 2:41]

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A man gives a teenage girl a ride in his car and she acts flirtatiously, she asks if he wants her to perform oral sex on him and he declines (because of her age) and she lies back across his lap while he drives.
► Many people are shown at what is identified as “The Playboy Mansion” and women wearing skimpy “Bunny” costumes serve beverages and dance (cleavage, bare shoulders and legs to the hips are seen). A woman sleeps in a bed with a sheet covering most of her (she’s presumably nude); her bare leg to the upper thigh and shoulder are seen. A woman in a movie scene tumbles backward over a suitcase accidentally and we see her bare legs and a glimpse of her underwear. A woman wears a short skirt that reveals bare legs to the upper thighs while dancing in an airplane lounge. Several teen girls wear short shorts, skirts and halter tops that reveal cleavage, bare abdomens and bare legs to the upper thighs in several scenes. A woman wears a short dress that reveals bare legs to the upper thighs. A picture of a woman wearing a bikini is seen on the wall of a man’s mobile home (cleavage, partial abdomen and her legs to the thighs are seen). A man poses for photos with a woman who is wearing a short skirt (her bare legs to the upper thighs are seen). A man removes his shirt and we see his bare chest, abdomen and back. A woman wearing a T-shirt and shorts (her bare legs to the upper thighs are seen) dances while packing a suitcase. A man is shown shirtless and wearing shorts (his bare chest, abdomen and back are seen). A shirtless man practices martial arts moves (his bare chest, abdomen and back are seen). A man wears swim trunks (his bare chest, abdomen and legs to the thighs are seen) and a woman wears a bikini poolside (cleavage, bare abdomen and her legs to the upper thighs are seen). A pregnant woman wears underwear and a camisole that reveals cleavage, part of her abdomen and legs to the hips. A woman is shown wearing a bra and underwear (cleavage, bare abdomen and legs to the hips are seen).
► A man and woman hug and kiss. Two women kiss on the lips in greeting, two women hold hands and a woman holds another woman around the waist (one is standing behind the other). A husband and his wife hold hands while walking through an airport.
► A man admires a teenage girl as she walks across a street in front of his car; the teen turns back and smiles at him. A man admires a woman and makes a suggestive remark as she exits a scene in a movie. A man exits a parked bus with a woman and he is seen fastening his pants (it’s not clear if sex had occurred).
► A young woman says that she had sex with an older man earlier and that he is probably tired from the activity. A man describes a woman’s relationship with two men and that the three of them are inseparable. A man talks about another man wearing “tight pants.” A teenage girl hitchhikes and pantomimes asking a man in a car for a ride, he indicates that he is not going her way and she draws a tear down her cheek with her finger. A woman comments about “dirty movies.”

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A man with a gun and two women with knives break into a house and confront a man inside: the gunman threatens the other man while saying, “I am the devil and I am here to do the devil’s work,” and a dog attacks him, biting his arm, leg and crotch (we see blood and the man yells in pain); a woman with a knife charges the man and he throws a can of dog food that hits her hard in the face (she falls back and we see her disfigured and very bloody face as she screams), the dog attacks the woman and she screams as we hear crunching (we see an arm bone exposed and more blood); the other woman with a knife lunges at the man and stabs him in the hip (we see the knife sticking out and blood on his pants), the man slams the woman’s head into a wall telephone, a table and a fireplace mantel repeatedly until she is dead (we see a lot of blood splattering and hear crunching as her face and head break); the first woman runs through a glass window and falls into a swimming pool firing a gun in the air and screaming until a man sprays her with a flame thrower and she is engulfed with flames (we see her charred flesh as she floats in the pool dead).
► A man tells another man who has flattened his tire to fix it with a spare, the second man laughs at him and the first man punches him in the face three times (we see his very bloody face, nose and teeth), and then throws him against the car. Two men argue and challenge each other to a fight; one man kicks the other in the chest and knocks him to the ground, he tries to kick him a second time but the man slams him into the side of a car (the car door is shown crumpled and the man gets up slowly) and they continue to fight exchanging blows until they are stopped by a woman yelling at them.
► A man in a TV show scene shoots the driver of a truck in the head and blood sprays on the passenger in the truck; the man then shoots the passenger when he gets out of the vehicle (blood is shown on the wound). A man in a Western movie unfastens his gun and he and another man talk before drawing on each other and one man is shot and falls back to the ground (presumably dead without blood showing). A man with a flame thrower sprays several men and we see them in flames (in a movie scene) as he screams, “Die you Nazi [mild obscenity deleted]” and laughs. A man with a machine gun shoots another man and he falls into a window that breaks (in a movie). A man is shot off a roof and lands on the ground (no blood is seen), and a man punches another man in the face several times (no blood is shown) on a TV show. A man in a TV show is shot in the chest and he falls to the ground without blood shown. A movie sequence shows several men fighting with punches and throws (no blood is shown). A movie scene shows two women fighting with kicks and one woman is knocked to the floor. A movie scene shows a man with a gun holding a young girl on his lap and threatening to shoot her (he holds the gun to her head); he then throws the girl to the floor with a thud (she is not harmed). A car chase is shown in a movie scene and one car jumps over a bridge as the road way parts and the other car falls in the water.
► Several scenes show a man driving a car fast along narrow, winding and hilly roads, as well as crowded city streets with his tires screeching. A man jumps up onto a ledge and then a roof (parkour-like). Several teen girls root through dumpsters and pull out food items and other things while singing. A woman in a movie scene tumbles backward over a suitcase accidentally (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details).
► We see a handgun in a man’s trailer home. A handgun is shown on the front seat of a car and the driver cocks it but does not shoot. We see several wanted posters in a commercial for a bounty hunter TV show. A character is dressed as a werewolf on a TV show (he has a furry face and hands).
► A man yells at four people in a car and tells them to leave his street (they back down the road). Several people line up and yell at a man as he leaves a ranch and he sees that one of them has stabbed his tire with a knife and flattened it. A woman yells at a man and tells him to get off a set. A man tells another man that he can light another man on fire, or hit him with a Lincoln, trying to help to get him a job. A man talks about another man having killed his wife and we flash to a scene where a woman is berating the man on a boat while he is holding a spear gun (the scene cuts away before anything else happens). A man cries after relating the story of a character in a book that fell off a horse and hurt his hip. A young girl tells a man that she doesn’t like being called cutesy names (he called her “pumpkin puss”). Two men reminisce about a day in the past and one says, “People died that day.” A man in a movie scene talks about his daughter and asks another man, “Don’t hurt her this time.” A man yells in frustration when he misses delivering a line on a movie set. A man yells and throws things in his trailer on a movie set (a window breaks). A man asks a teen girl for her ID because he suspects she is underage and she offers him sex while he gives her a ride. A man in a movie tells another man, “Kidnapping is a hanging offense.” A man says that another man told him to go to a house, “Kill everyone in there, and make it witchy.” A young woman says, “We kill the people that taught us to kill”; and she says, “Let’s cut their [anatomical term deleted] off and make them eat it.” A man yells and flinches when he turns lights on while he is under the influence of a drug. A teen girl yells at police in a squad car as they drive by and she makes an obscene hand gesture.
► We hear that a man has received several DUIs for driving drunk and has lost his license and we see him in the back of a police car, holding an ice pack to his head with a crumpled car in the background after an accident. A man describes what a stunt person does and how they can save studios from the trouble and expense of having their leading actors suffer potential injuries. A radio report talks about the war in Vietnam. A radio broadcast talks about “hate and dishonor.” A man stutters in a few scenes. A man talks to another man about his acting career being systematically ruined by the parts he is playing. A man talks about a “fate worse than death.” A man talks about fighting being combat and that if you don’t beat an opponent, “He kills you,” and he says, “I kill people.” A man says that he would make another man “a cripple” if they were to fight. A comment is made about a pregnant woman suffering from melancholy during her pregnancy. A man says that his wife took 5 sleeping pills.
► A painting depicts Native Americans being struck down in a battle. A man is shown to have scars on his shoulder, abdomen and chest.
► A man serves a dog food from cans and the gelatinous glob oozes out of the can and slops into a dirty dish on the floor twice; the can’s label lists that the food is raccoon flavored. A man lies on the floor of his mobile home and his dog lies on top of him licking his face; the man gives the dog a large bone to chew on. A man throws his cigarette butt into a pot of stale food. A man coughs violently and spits in several scenes (we see goo leave his mouth a couple of times). A man spits into a spittoon (we hear a clang). A man blows something out of his nose and we hear a splat on the ground. A house is shown to be filthy with caked-on food on dishes, and a rat dying on the floor (it is seen thrashing and squeaking).

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood LANGUAGE 10

 – About 100 F-words and its derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 6 sexual references, 43 scatological terms, 27 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, 4 derogatory terms for Hispanic people, name-calling (bastards, crazy, dragon, dude, bounty killer, miserable, drunk, little [anatomical term deleted], loser, creepy, loser, idiot, old-timey days, pig killers, piggies, phony, junk, bummer, Polish [anatomical term deleted], farce, jug head, useless, pumpkin puss, dumb, hippies, has-been, temperamental cat, chili pepper heart, honey, old man, mama bear), exclamations (heck, dang, suck on that), 18 religious profanities (GD), 10 religious exclamations (Holy [scatological term deleted], Thank God, Jesus Christ, Oh My God). | profanity glossary |

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood SUBSTANCE USE

 – People at a party are shown smoking what looks like marijuana cigarettes, a man smokes an acid dipped cigarette and behaves as if he is high, a woman smokes a marijuana cigarette in bed, a man buys an “acid dipped” cigarette from a teenage girl, a man says that his wife took 5 sleeping pills, and a man rolls a marijuana cigarette. A man drinks a cocktail in a bar, a man drinks and smokes in a bar, people drink and smoke in a restaurant, a man drinks from a can of beer while smoking in his mobile home, a man pours liquor in a shaker and adds a raw egg to it before shaking it, a man drinks from a flask in a few scenes, people smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol on an airplane, two men are shown inebriated after drinking a lot in a restaurant (they take a taxi home), 2 men drink in a saloon in a movie scene, a man pours himself a cognac and prepares a cigar to smoke, a man reprimands himself for drinking too much, two men smoke cigarettes and drink beers in one man’s house, a man drinks a cognac at a bar, a man makes a pitcher of frozen Margaritas and drinks from the pitcher, we hear that a man has lost his license because of too many DUIs, a man talks about getting blind drunk with a friend, and a man talks about having 8 whiskey sours in a night. A man smokes a cigarette on a TV show set, a man smokes a cigarette in a car, a man smokes on a rooftop, a man smokes while walking, and men smoke in many scenes throughout the film.

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – The film industry, Hollywood, fame, fading careers and celebrity, friendship, Charles Manson, Squeaky Fromme, Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski, spaghetti westerns, anti-heroes, the 1970s.

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood MESSAGE

 – Celebrity life in Hollywood can be difficult.