Exhilirating details, but ultimately exhausting

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2019)

Spoilers at very end, clearly marked.
1969 was a year of great turbulence with highs such as the Apollo 11 Moon landing and lows such as the escalation of the Vietnam war under the newly sworn in President Nixon. In August, the Charles Manson murders struck deep into the psyche of Los Angeles. Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD takes place over a few days in 1969 months apart - February and August. It's a sprawling if ultimately exasperating film.
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a 40-something actor who once starred in a short lived Western TV series and a few features, but is now reduced to bit parts on other stars' shows. His best buddy is stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Rick's home in the Hollywood Hills happens to be next door to new tenant Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) and his wife, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). One of the odd assortment of stragglers and wannabees who have hung out at the Polish Director's home in the past is one Charles Manson (Damon Herriman). Also, just drifting around town are some of Manson's 'girls' including one dubbed Pussycat (Margaret Qualley), who lures Cliff up to the old Spahn Movie Ranch where Cliff and Rick have shot pictures --- and, happens to be the Manson Family hang.
But, ONCE isn't really concerned about plot, per se. Of the film's 161 minutes, only about half of it is (and even that may be generous). Tarantino and his collaborators including Cinematographer Robert Richardson (shooting on 35mm film), Production Designer Barbara Ling and Costumer Arianne Phillips have done a bang up job recreating the Hollywood of the late 60s - well, at least the version imagined by QT. While we hear a few seconds on the radio about Nam and the RFK assassination, it's really all about the Pop culture references. Virtually every major or cult film release in '69 seems to be cited at one point or another. Hit songs are strewn on the soundtrack. Posters, commercials, ads and merchandise are bandied about like some phantasmagorical eBay vintage store come to life. The war, civil rights protests, Stonewall, women's lib? Nah, no time for that (about as 'political' as the movie gets are Cliff and Rick putting down "hippies'). Let's see a five minute montage of how a movie gets threaded into a projector in a Producer's (Al Pacino) home movie theater or fetish a needle drop on a turntable, instead.
Pitt and DiCaprio play off their natural charms either hanging out together or separately. They inhabit the screen naturally even when a scene (or two or three...) is well past any point. Robbie isn't given much to do but seem winsome and perky. Mike Moh's Bruce Lee is an affront to the Martial arts legend (having worked with Lee's family and friends, this isn't the Bruce Lee they describe). The rest of the cast is fine doing the patented coy and arch QT thing, but the Manson family scenes are largely played straight (even if the actors aren't given room for genuine depth). Over-writing is a given with QT, but, here, the seeming inability to be willing to edit his scenes to a reasonable degree severely hampers the momentum. There are times one feels as if they are watching a movie with the DVD extras included IN the film. It's about footnotes more than an actual story. Some of the footnotes are a lot of fun, but it's at the expense of telling a gripping story. A good editor could cut the 2:45 film to under two hours and still keep most of the references.
The above is unfortunate, because there was so much potential there for ONCE to become a truly enjoyable hang out picture. Just spending time groovin' to a fantasy version of the 60s. Of course, that only covers the first 3/4 of the film. There's still the already infamous ENDING to address.
SPOILERS, of course, although anybody who is aware that the Manson killings are involved and has seen INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, DJANGO UNCHAINED or the overlong Samuel L. Jackson C-Sucker flashback in HATEFUL 8 will already have a pretty good idea of where this one is heading (once QT begged folks not to reveal the ending in Cannes, it was pretty easy to figure out).
Still, final WARNING on SPOILERS:
/
Who would have thought that of all his contemporary filmmakers, that QT would devolve into another M. Night Shyamalan with his predictable 'twist' endings? It's become a joke and a self-parody at this point. Setting aside the ethics of this cockeyed alternate history, what's truly disappointing is that the Susan Atkins/Sadie character (Mikey Madison) sets up what could have been a powerful hard-hitting coda when she talks about her idea to kill the people who taught them to kill! But, if we've learned anything over the nine feature films in QT's career is that meaning ALWAYS takes a back-seat to saying, doing or looking "cool". He is the low priest bowing to the altar of "cool" above (or below) all else. And, so, the yahoos in the crowd get their chance to hoop and holler as the bad guys get theirs. It's a cheap trick, that if a "Quentin SMITH" had directed the film, nobody would take seriously, but the QT cult is mighty strong.
Even considering the fantasy construct it's also curious that QT alters one critical point - the Linda Kasabian character (Maya Hawke) DIDN'T drive away the night of the actual murders. She remained as a look-out. Also, Manson himself is curiously spared (perhaps we'll see his fate in the 9 hour DVD/Streaming cut that is sure to follow).