Another frustrating Tarantino entry

Rating: 4/10 (14 June 2020)

Following the frustrating entry to Tarantino's career that was Hateful Eight, the living legend is back with yet another divisive and controversial flick to add to his discography, while carrying over many of the flaws seen with his aforementioned previous film.
An obvious flaw is the length. Even to the most devoted Tarantino fans, it's undeniable that he seems to be getting carried away with his writing following his label as one of the greatest directors of our generation. With now 9 films under his belt, Tarantino seems to have no concept of when to pull back on the running times of his films anymore - with his last 3 films (including this one) being his longest films to date. Whereas with Django unchained it's length was justified, with his previous two entries, the plots are simply far too simplistic to justify nearly 3 hour run times.
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood feels like a spiritual successor to Pulp Fiction, where it's a seemingly plotless film driven by a talented cast, except this time without Tarantino bothering to write anything - a painful amount of this movie feels like it was dedicated to just watching our characters walk or drive around with very little happening - The most frustrating example of which is Margot Robbie's character, who only exists to walk around, speak for once scene, then provide the fake-out ending similar to the one seen in Inglorious Basterds. Only in Inglorious Basterds, the ending was earned after the whole film was building to it, whereas here, the film generally meanders for 2 hours and 20 minutes, with Tarantino abandoning his use of encapsulating dialogue (which made Hateful Eight bareable), only for a final 20 minutes that rushes to an out of nowhere conclusion.
Whats the most annoying is that when the regular Tarantino-isms are at play, the film can be tense, emotional, and satisfying, but far too much of the film is spent meandering for these moments to feel gratifying, and now these tropes are starting to come off as a punchline, with the numerous shots of feet, and Tarantino literally cutting through a conversation with Dicaprio and Olyphant, as if to show awareness of how his dialogue scenes can drag.
The legendary director is still in there, it just requires a stripped back runtime and more time spent with the films characters to feel truly gratifying again.