A character study with an unexpected ending

Rating: 7/10 (26 April 2020)

Tl;dr: A good Tarantino film. Needed to be a little tighter at the beginning. Loved the slow lingering pace and the creepy interludes. Also, the best soundtrack and music.
Expect a slow paced historical drama and you will love it.
I have seen this film twice now, once on the big screen and another time on a Friday evening at home. Upon first viewing, I was mesmerised by the setting, the characters, the references and most importantly the reverent, lingering character study of the lives of the enduring bromance between two men.
Certain aspects of the movies are shot like a series of vlogs, for example a scene where Rick and Cliff just watch a show together. In another scene, Sharon Tate just goes to a movie that she was in. In yet another scene, Cliff just goes home and feeds his dog while watching TV. If you go into this movie expecting fast pacing and lots of action setpieces, one would certainly be disappointed.
I appreciated the strange and creepy undertone created by the scenes showing the Mansion family hitchhiking through LA as they secretly planned their crime spree and a sense of foreboding from seeing an ecstatic Sharon Tate going around LA.
On second viewing, however I felt that film was too densely packed with too many storylines and some moments where the filmmaker just wants to glory in Hollywood tropes and cultural references such as a sequence that puts Rick Dalton in the Great Escape do not help focus the story.