Quentin Tarantino's love letter to 1960's Hollywood

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2019)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is by far the slowest paced of Tarantino's movies, but as a lover of movies and the Golden age of Hollywood, that is one of the things I enjoyed most about the film, It is about the friendship between a has been actor trying to recapture his past glory and his stunt double who also functions as his driver and gofer, I love seeing behind the scenes of Hollywood movie making and there is a lot of that in this movie.
The film is set in the months leading up to the Manson murders and therein lies the tension as we see the the main characters, played by Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio, living next door to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski (This is one of those movies that is best watched for the first time spoiler free) - The Manson murders ended the innocence of Hollywood and the idealism of the 60's hippie culture, so going in I thought that was going to be the emotional impact of the movie, however in a surprise the ending twists into an alternate reality where the would be murderers walk into the house next door to Tate's and are themselves savagely and rather humorously killed by the main characters, the closing shot of Sharon Tate still alive is touching and emotional and leaves you wondering what her life would have been like if this ending had been reality.
However, is the ending in good taste? - it is one thing to mess around with Hitler's history as Tarantino did in Inglorious Bastards - who cares about him? - but most everyone above a certain age knows what really happened to Sharon Tate and how brutally she was murdered, is it insulting to her memory to give her life a feel good Hollywood ending the way Tarantino did or will seeing the Manson Murderers getting their just deserts, even if it's in an alternate reality, be a catharsis for many? - That is still an open question for me and one that I am sure will be debated by movie watchers for a long time.