Great acting, style, cinematography...very lacking in other areas

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2019)

I really wanted to like this more. Beautful photography! Mixing and matching genres: comedy, western, spaghetti western, thriller etc. Fun story set-ups. Great acting!
But then the problems starts. I saw another review that would describe Tarantino's "hubris" when writing this. For many die-hard Tarantino fans, everything he does is ballsy and edgy. But to me, as the minutes became hours, I felt that this was just an ensemble cast gathered to "subvert...subervert...subvert". Yes, he plays with genres but that has been done elsewhere, such as Westworld. Ultimately Tarantono just strings together several stories, leading up to the requisite bloodbath at the end. The Dicaprio story was interesting, the rest kind of went nowhere. Cliff does this contrived trip to the ranch to come upon Manson's minions, pokes the bear for no particular reason, even when it is clear the old man basically knows what's happening. This then leads to the randon encounter next door, where history can be rewritten to erase the Manson family's major murder spree. First, younger audiences won't get it, second what is the point of undoing this Hollywood event that sort of redefined us as a nation and how we see the modern age. Let's throw that out the window so we can have a big violent brawl! Maybe in part II the friends can travel back in time to get Hitler!
Beyond this, there really is a lot of establishment anger to 60's/70's counterculture here. The "old timey" folks who act in the traditional shows are the "good guys" but the counter-culture "hippies" are treated with contempt throughout the film. And then the "good guys" change history by a random event just thrown in their laps - as Cliff conveniently runs into this girl numerous times and she happens to be Manson family. No particularly positive examples of the hippie movement, just right to the murderers who are disdained before they even commit a murder. For someone wo so likes subverting genres and expectations, why does Tarantino have such rage against a group that was 99% peaceful.
So much of the film is built on contrived circumstance. The one character is called pussycat and Brad Pitt is given the easy set up: We all love p*ssy...yes we do. So, so classy.
To me this was a macho film that dabbled in different genres.
However, the film is redeemed somewhat by the very good acting of Dicaprio, Pitt seemed a bit incidental. Style was amazing. Sadly, it lacked the substance.