A Tarantino film I didn't hate!

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2019)

I'm not a fan of Quentin Tarantino (sorry but I don't think that copying the styles and/or set decoration of '60s and '70s films or cramming a script full of nods to them makes someone a "genius") but I gotta hand it to him on this one... A 2 hour and 41 minute film where the first 2 hours and 30-something minutes are basically the set-up for a joke! Must be nice to have the clout to be able to pull that off!
I imagine that Tarantino came up with the kooky "what if" ending first and then went back to the beginning and wrote the script, figuring out how to get the two main characters there. I'm not sure that it needed to take them six months.
Fortunately, the background story of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Pitt) is fairly interesting. Both actors inhabit the roles flawlessly. DiCaprio is particularly good. He emotes with the best of 'em. There's also nice cinematography, great period detail, and lots of classic music here. Yes, it's self-indulgent with the gazillion things that are alluding to other things and the way it's sometimes practically screaming, "LOOK, it's 1969!!" Almost every shot with a visible television screen is playing the open of a popular '60s show. "Look, it's 'Mannix' so it's 1969!" A flashback with Booth and his wife seems to be inspired by Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood but it would be more obvious (and make more sense) if the actress playing his wife resembled Wood.
Teens and millennials probably won't get a lot of the references/homages or know who some of the real people depicted in the film are. Certain references might not resonate with seniors either. My niece and nephew would have no idea who Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski were. My mother remembered the Tate-LaBianca murders but didn't recognize Bruce Lee or realize that he was dressed as Kato from "The Green Hornet." I, myself, did not pick up on the references to other Tarantino movies because I've only seen a few others and didn't care for them. A viewer would have to know of the Manson "Family" murders in order to really appreciate (or maybe just "get") the ending of the film.
The violence near the end is over-the-top but I guess that's a Tarantino thing.
What-ifs are, well, iffy. Speculating about what people, who are no longer around to defend themselves, might do is touchy. Thankfully, Tarantino doesn't disrespect Sharon Tate and her friends or make them look bad.
A note to all of the people describing this movie as depicting "the golden age of Hollywood..." 1969 was NOT, I repeat, not the golden age of Hollywood! Please watch some TCM, feel ashamed, and do some sort of penance immediately.
I can't believe that I actually paid to see a Quentin Tarantino film in a theater and then didn't want my money or the 161 minutes of my life back!