Some nice visual work, Pitt is great but movie drags on too much

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2019)

Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors but this movie lacks focus and was not well edited.
First, I want to clear up one thing that some reviewers are getting wrong: this movie is not about the golden age of Hollywood. Tarantino was capturing Hollywood in the aftermath of the golden age which ended more than a decade earlier with the rise of television. He never claimed this period was the Golden Age of Hollywood.
A 2 hour and 40 minute movie can work well if there is enough substance and pace but this movie lacks both unfortunately.
Brad Pitt is great. It is one of his three best performances and deserves an Oscar. He and Tarantino clearly have good chemistry. Tarantino wrote True Romance, which was one of Pitt's early parts. There is one scene that parallels his role in that film.
Leonardo is good but the movie spends too much time showing him doing takes in cowboy movies. Also, he appears to be overacting a lot of the time (stuttering) which I guess is how Tarantino wanted him to be because perhaps Tarantino has his own stuttering issues and wanted to reflect that in the character but it felt awkward.
I felt that the backdrop of this story (the Manson family) was not the best choice for a film though Tarantino does a better job with it than I expected.
There are some good cameos but they are too short. Michael Madsen, Al Pacino and Kurt Russell are all guys you would like to spend more than just a few minutes with. Bruce Dern (82 at time of filming) is also fine in a small but important role.
There are a ton of great cinematography scenes in here that bump up my rating. One in particular involves Margot Robbie and the Roman Polanski character driving fast through Hollywood in a very impressive piece of camerawork.The cinematographer is Robert Richardson (Platoon, Kill Bill, Hateful Eight, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Hugo).
One of the best scenes is actually a car chase from the 1967 Italian movie Death on the Run (directed by one of Tarantinos favorites Sergio Corbucci) which is shown on the screen.
The time and effort spent recreating 60s Hollywood with the neon signs, the old cars, the movie posters and other set design pieces can not be understated. Credit Tarantino here for his vision as well as masterful set decoration by Nancy Haigh (Forrest Gump, Field of Dreams, Bugsy, Road to Perdition, Truman Show, No Country for Old Men).
Tarantino does a superb job in picking his music. Lots of great offbeat and obscure 60s songs lift the film. There is a cool reference to the actor Edmond (Eddie) O'Brien.
Overall, this is enjoyable if you can put up with the slow parts and a gory ending that is just a tad over the top as Tarantino likes to be. I think he did a great job with Margot Robbie though I think he actually could have shaved off about five minutes of her walking around Hollywood. Would Sharon Tate really go to the movies alone and do we need to see her bare feet on the seat?
The final three minutes are cinematic greatness. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood needed a few more great moments.