"Hollywood"

1950 · Billy Wilder · 110 min · Film Noir / Drama

Sunset Boulevard is one of those rare films that feels like it could have been made yesterday, even though it's over seventy years old. Billy Wilder crafted something vicious and beautiful here, a story about fame's wreckage that never flinches from its own darkness. Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond is one of cinema's greatest creations, a character so vivid she's become shorthand for an entire kind of delusion. If you care about movies at all, this one demands your attention.

2019 · Quentin Tarantino · 161 min · Comedy / Drama

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino's most relaxed and personal film, a sun-soaked love letter to 1969 Los Angeles that spends two and a half hours hanging out with its characters before unleashing a violent, cathartic finale that rewrites history. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have electric chemistry as a fading TV star and his stuntman, and the recreation of late-1960s Hollywood is meticulous to the point of obsession. The pacing is deliberately languid, with long stretches that prioritize atmosphere over plot, and viewers who need a story to drive forward will find the first two hours aimless. Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate deserved more to do. But as an exercise in mood, nostalgia, and the bittersweet feeling of watching an era end, it's one of Tarantino's richest achievements.

2004 · 8 Seasons · HBO · Comedy / Drama

Entourage is a Hollywood fantasy machine powered by wish fulfillment, celebrity cameos, and Jeremy Piven's volcanic performance as super-agent Ari Gold. The first four seasons deliver a breezy, entertaining ride through a version of Los Angeles where everything works out for the main characters, and the fun is infectious when you stop resisting it. Later seasons run out of creative energy, and the show's treatment of women, always a weak point, hasn't aged well at all. It's a time capsule of mid-2000s bro culture that's simultaneously easy to binge and difficult to defend. If you can enjoy it for what it is without expecting it to be more, there's genuine entertainment here.