I DOUBTED THIS, I'M GLAD I WAS WRONG...!

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2019)

Quentin Tarantino's newest is another in his revisionist cinematic history lessons which by the initial trailers I was little worried about since I didn't get what kind of thrust the released product would be but shame on me for having any doubts. Taking place in the 1969, we get a glimpse of a world where Leonardo DiCaprio, an actor & his stunt double, Brad Pitt, live in & out of their respective pockets as they try to stay employed & more importantly relevant in Tinseltown where a sea change of creativity & change was now in full swing. DiCaprio's aging Western star is now making ends meet doing bit villain turns against other actors who's stars are in the ascendant while Pitt has to collect a paycheck being DiCaprio's all around valet & handyman since his days as a stunt performer (the surgical scars on his body belie the once buoyant heyday of his glory days while a rumor of his offing his wife still hangs over him like an albatross) seems to be in his rear-view. All of this would be enough for a pleasant narrative but we also have to deal w/the real life players in these characters' orbit like Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), an up & coming actress who's pregnant w/director Roman Polanski's child & more importantly Charles Manson's flower children who cross paths w/Pitt & who will play a historic part in the annals of Hollywood murder cases for all time. That the last sequence doesn't give historians the ending they were expecting is something Tarantino has mastered for the bulk of his career & it should be applauded rather than chided since truth in this case would be rote & expected giving this denouement a welcome cold water splash of irony. Look for Damian Lewis (Billions) as an uncanny doppelganger for Steve McQueen (I thought it was CG for a sec).