The one thing this sublimely directed film is missing is, well, direction

Rating: 7/10 (28 July 2019)

First Tarantino movie, oh boy. My plan was to watch Pulp Fiction before going into this but I ran out of time. Doesn't matter however. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will not be immune to common flaws Tarantino films may or may not have over the years of their production. That being said, I enjoyed this movie and think the positives outweigh the negatives, despite the negatives being pretty damning from my perspective.
I understand that not everyone is going to have the same experience as I did, and that's fine. I almost don't want to use my bullet point format now, seeing as this one needs more than a sentence or two per point to explain how I felt about certain things. I will also be marking this as containing spoilers against the will of Mr. Director, because some stuff I have problems with happens at the cost of explaining the plot. We'll start with said stuff.
* Margot Robbie, also known as Sharron Tate, has absolutely zero impact on the plot whatsoever. We keep cutting to her like she's important, but nothing she does influences anything. I get now that I've done my research that this is somewhat based on the real life events of her death. But this movie doesn't do that. The ending is amazing, but she doesn't die like in real life. We have scenes of her sitting in a theater. We have scenes of her dancing to music. Neither of which influence her character, neither of which are even setup to the climax. She's just nothing.
* This segways into my other big issue: It's too long! This movie did not need to be 3 hours long, at all. Half the movie is just filler! Entertaining filler? Sometimes. Well directed filler, absolutely. But filler nonetheless. You could have easily cut the movie down by at least half the runtime. Cut Margot Robbie, cut the multitude of driving or dancing sequences, cut the subplots that go nowhere, and you'd have a tighter movie. Because for chunks of the movie the plot is meandering and meaningless, and the nearly 3 hour runtime begins to feel like a full day.
* Sloppy narration. It's not only inconsistent, as it only happens during the first 10 minutes and last half hour, it's just explaining what we already see happening on the screen. Apparently this is a trope of his. Oh boy.
Those are my seriously major issues. However, for as much as I dislike those aspects, this movie has some seriously amazing things.
* Fantastic direction. Despite the plot and events having zero real direction for half the movie, the camerawork, the way Tarantino made the movie, is so dang good. Long shots, well edited sequences, the acting, lord it's so good. I'd recommend this movie based on that alone.
* Fantastic production design. The sets, the lighting, the costumes are just... mmph! So good.
* Leonardo was great. He really immersed themselves in his roles within roles, and he gives probably one of the best performances of the year. Brad was really good as well, I love the intrigue behind his character and he has easily the best scenes in the movie.
* When the plot wants to do something interesting, I was on the edge of my seat. The abandoned Western set sequence was uncomfortable in all the best ways.
* The climax is just amazing. Did we really need to sit through 2 and half hours of not so needed stuff to see it? No. Was it worth it? Yes. It's so satisfying. The gore, the reincorporation, the dog?
* Brad Pitt pets the dog. +1 star.
Bottom Line: Does this movie work? Yes. It could have stood to be cut and given some characters something to do. But overall it's a damn interesting movie. I'd still recommend it regardless of my problems with it.