The Vista is a 101-year-old single-screen movie theater, one of the last of its kind in Los Angeles. For Tarantino, that film was “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” in which two working actors stumble through the Hollywood of 1969, as one film era crashes into another. For West, it is “X” and “Pearl” and the trilogy’s final film, the newly released “MaXXXine.” These are, like most of West’s films, nominally horror movies. But they are also much stranger and more slippery than that label might suggest. In all three films, the horror stems from the characters’ drive toward stardom and their ruthless, sometimes psychotic ambition, which is fully unleashed by the possibilities of the silver screen.

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Persons: Quentin Tarantino, Pam Grier, ”, Tarantino, “ I’ve, Pearl, Pearl ”, Martin Scorsese, Scorsese, West Organizations: Hollywood Locations: Los Angeles, Beverly, Hollywood