Neither Good Nor Bad Nor Ugly

Rating: 7/10 (23 August 2019)

Patchwork is one word that comes to my mind when I try to describe this movie. There is, undoubtedly , a strong storyline that supports the sub plots , but one can clearly identify the seams.
Just as the film tries to depict an era of transition in Hollywod, one can not miss a similar transition in Tarantino's directorial ventures. This transition was partially visible in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and pretty evident in Django Unchained ( 2012). The Hateful Eight (2015) could be called an exception, for despite the lukewarm reception it got from some quarters, it definitely is reminiscent of old school Tarantino. However , with Once Upon...Hollywood (OUH for short) Tarantino seems to have marched up to the precipice.
There is abundant absurdism in the movie that is quite welcome. Tarantino also makes good use of most of his actors but they are undone at times by the patchy plots.
It seems the whole film is grappling with irreconcilable elements, although each element in itself is fairly entertaining.
The movie chugs along at a languid pace in the first half. The director succeeds in presenting an engaging picture of Hollywood and also treats the story itself respectably.
The second half of the movie is only marginally quicker in progression than the first. But it is also the half where the movie falters a bit. On the one hand the turn of the plot is well arched and like any good story has a lot of implicit stimuli. On the other hand, the trajectory seems a bit wayward. The action sequences that appear are shot well and are gruesome ( as expected) and do balance the wheel.
But there is always something that is missing in the narrative- is it the bite in dialogue? the sharpness in shifting between plots? Character development? Or the absence of substance in some scenes?
May be it is just a phase that marks the completion of transition in Tarantino's film making.
Whatever may be the case, the movie is a decent effort with some fairly
entertaining scenes. I wanted to give it 7.8 . Alas would have to give the movie an unfair 7.