Fun flick, but seems lost

Rating: 7/10 (26 August 2019)

Once upon a time...in Hollywood takes many real life events of the late 60s and adds a few fictional characters to turn a few nudges on the actual happenings.
The atmosphere of Hollywood in the late 60s felt nice and was well executed all the way around (from fonts, to set design, music, etc.). It evokes nostalgia even for people who just saw movies OF that time (not AT that time). But of course, people who are familiar with actors and movies of that era will get much more out of this since there are a lot of references and sometimes even real scenes from old movies are shown.
Dicaprio gives a wonderful performance (actually I thinks this is my favourite role of his) of a western movie and tv star that sees his career on a descending branch, while his stunt double (brad pitt), lives a far less luxurious life but doesnt really care about any of that. The role of Sharon Tate (a meanwhile deceased real movie star) is thrown in more or less arbitrarily since she doesnt have anything to do in the plot, just with the real-life ending to this movie, which doesnt happen.
And here it is where the problems start. Because while every scenen in itself works well, has humour, sometimes heart (and a very low amount of violence for QT), sometimes tension, the whole package lacks structure, something to follow, something that keeps your interest because everything is just tied together very loosely. Almost every scene could be taken out and it wouldnt change anything.
I will admit, this can work for some movies, those kind of movies that bring up questions, those movies that are slow, but still manage to occupy your mind all the way through (2001 is a good example). But Once upon a time...in hollywood is not one of these movies, its just stuff happening. Which seriously is a pitty, because everything else works so well, but around the end of the second act it was dragging so much that I actually grew restless and bored, something I absolutely didnt anticipate in a QT film. Till the end there also really isnt any payoff that could redeem this lack of narrative, give it some purpose. Theres just more stuff happening, then its over.
The only explanation I have for some of those high ratings are the simple fact that QT directed and that it stars Dicaprio and Pitt (and maybe also the nostalgia part). Because I can guarantee everyone, that if this was an Indie-film it would have a rating of something like 6-6.8 and many reviews would say something like "self-indulging indie-trash".
Conclusion: Pleasant movie, maybe watch it while youre having friends over. But if you want some real entertaining movie, keep looking.