A little empty throughout, but builds up to a satisfying climax

Rating: 7/10 (19 August 2019)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Hollywood, 1969. As the decade draws to a close, so to is the career of Rick Dalton (Leonardo Di Caprio), a faded star of westerns who's starting to realise his time is up. He now meanders aimlessly around, with his stunt double and best friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), but the pair are about to get a surprise, when Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), the wife of Roman Polanski, moves in next door to Rick, setting all of them on a dark and dangerous collision course with the Manson cult.
And so, Quentin Tarantino rolls around with his ninth film. After a couple of attempts to resurge the western genre, in his signature gory way, here he returns to more familiar ground, keeping the western element in the background, with the lead character being a faded western actor. Returning, as always, with familiar faces he's worked with before, the familiar rapport and effective working partnership (along with new addition Robbie) work well in this slightly over indulgent but ultimately worthwhile romp.
A director who is distinctively more driven by dialogue than plot, at times the story here feels as aimless as it's lead character's predicament, meandering along without much direction, and not really solid enough to sustain a nearly three hour length. It is driven along by a creepy sense of atmosphere, given the grisly build up to the real life events it's alluding to, along with, of course, the standard smooth dialogue and cool, funky soundtrack, but pays off with some darkly humourous shenaningans , involving some of the trademark Tarantino violence, which may explain the 18 certificate here.
It doesn't have the strongest foundation to build on, and does require your patience a bit, but it does work in the end, albeit maybe not as well as it could have, guided along by a cool, attractive cast who fit the shoes of who they're playing fine, and bravely take creative licence with such sensitive true life events. ***