Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: Ranking Every Major Performance

It's been a few years since Al Pacino was really *Al Pacino*.

The revered and absolute legend of an actor has spent the past decade-or-so alternating between distinctly generic fare (see: Hangman or Misconduct) and films so downright awful it's kind of embarrassing (see: Jack and Jill). But in typical Tarantino fashion, Pacino is back to true form here in a small but critical role that gives the actor easily his biggest win of the last decade.

As Marvin Schwarzs, a Hollywood producer newly representing Rick Dalton, Pacino essentially gets one big scene right at the start of the film and then a few cutaways peppered throughout. But what puts him a cut above the previous entries on this list is the way in which Pacino *really* makes his one big scene count.

The scene in which he meets Dalton for the first time and tells him what a huge fan he is only to then slowly reveal to Dalton that he feels his career is being mismanaged and that the actor is on the verge of irrelevancy if he continues down this path is downright haunting. It's the inciting incident of the entire film and Pacino delivers a tour de force performance in the span of minutes that anchors Rick Dalton's entire subsequent arc in genuine believability and pathos.

It's so great that it feels like Pacino swiftly and nonchalantly kicking the audience in the teeth, reminding them precisely how he got to be legend in the first place.