Tarantino's Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (11 December 2019)

I will be the first to say, this movie is not for everyone. If you're not of a certain mind you will find it to be slow and dragging. But for those of us who appreciate 60's cinema and television and the Hollywood that produced it, this is an absolute masterpiece. By far one of the greatest movies about movies I have ever seen.
Let's start with the atmosphere and writing. Tarantino has written a love letter to a certain period in the history of Los Angeles and it is gorgeous. He perfectly captures the time when old Hollywood was ending and new Hollywood was taking over, rendering the last year of the 60's in glorious detail with his trademark humor. The story wonderfully portrays the growing pains that the industry experienced, in particular its performers as they tried to find their niche in an ever changing landscape. The narrative isn't focused so much on Sharon Tate and the Manson family, but on two friends who as they age find their once secure positions becoming ever more unstable. Many people were likely disappointed by this focus, but it honestly makes for a better film. Many shows and movies have focused on the Manson family and their crimes, this one focuses on two working joes who saw things from the outside, making it easier for the audience to connect with the time and place and see a new perspective on a well-known story. And the focus that is placed on Tate is far better than what we normally get, treating her not as merely a victim but as a woman who, while seen by many as a glamorous star, was a normal girl like so many others, making her career and life one day at a time. Her portrayal, while short and relatively quiet, is the most three-dimensional and sympathetic I have yet seen. This is partly due to the casting of the role, which like all the other roles in the film is letter perfect. Every character is casted ideally, in particular those based on real people.
This of course is helped by the acting, which is overall transcendent. Margot Robbie perfectly captures the quiet unassuming glamor that Sharon Tate possessed. Damon Herriman gave me chills with his recreation of Manson's nasally drawl. And Dakota Fanning gets beautifully lost in the part of Squeaky Fromme, inspiring the right amount of revulsion and apprehension. But by far the standouts are the two main stars of the film. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have never been so good. DiCaprio turns in what I think is his best performance to date, authentically rendering the whole gamut of emotions experienced by a man watching his stardom fade by the day. His tears are moving, his drunken outbursts laugh-inducing. He IS Rick Dalton, to the point I forget that there are no other movies I can go watch him in. And then there is Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, the steady anchor to Dalton's instability. Pitt plays the stuntman with the practiced calm if someone who has taken his lumps and lived to tell about it, too content with what he has to care whether others approve. The only word for him here is badass. Badass in the way of Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, with the same weathered touch that makes you wonder what the rest of his story is. The two together, Booth and Dalton, DiCaprio and Pitt, are electric. The chemistry is genuine, smacking of a friendship spanning decades and running deep. Their interplay and their lives become more fun and fascinating to watch than any laser-focused portrayal of the Manson murders could ever be.
So if you enjoy movies about movies, and want a brilliant study of a friendship between two industry vets as they navigate a changing world, I urge you to watch this one. It truly is a glorious piece of cinema.