Typically Tarantino, Both For Better And Worse.

Rating: 8/10 (11 September 2019)

As with most Tarantino films, for me this had much to admire, some things that annoyed me, at least one thing that angered me (not in a good way), and confirmed yet again that he badly needs someone who will tell him to just edit it down, for goodness sake. Some disordered thoughts ...

in all the commentary on this, I think DiCaprio is brilliant in this. He invests his character with so much, by doing so little. His speech impediment, occasionally showing itself and quickly compensated for, is a brilliant show don't tell of his character's laboriously hidden vulnerability and trauma. I think it may be one the best performances of a pretty stellar career

some of the set pieces, typically of Tarantino, are packed with tension and dread, that is never fully resolved ... and all the better for it. The extended scene at Spahn Ranch leaves a superbly constructed shadow hanging that only comes back at the film's end.

that final segment of the film and its explosion of classically Tarantino-esque violence is one of the best sequences he's ever constructed. It reminds us just what greatness he's capable of.

there are lots of shots of peoples' feet in this film. I have no idea why this is.

there's no good reason for Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate to have so few lines. If people accuse a film-maker of misogyny, then you need to do better than this to disabuse people of the notion.

similarly the inexplicable scene with Bruce Lee. Whether you buy the line that it's a warped fantasy of one of the main characters, or some kind of over-played cartoonish character-building interlude, it's unnecessary, lazy and racist.

with regard to these last two points, I'm reminded (not for the first time with Tarantino) of the reviewer writing about Eminem who said 'he's clever, but not wise'.

it's way too long

I still really enjoyed most of it

He's so close to greatness that's it's becoming really frustrating. For your own sake, get some good people around you who will say no to you. Then you truly will be great again.