Tarantino's attempt at an Altman or Coen Brothers movie.

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2019)

But it inevitably comes across as a series of cute ideas that eventually trivializes and exploits its subjects.
Altamont and the Manson murders signaled the demise of the peace and free love movement that in 1969 traded daisy chains for butcher knives. The year was not the end of some golden era of cinema; it was the tipping point for culture as a whole. The Age of Aquarius was about to drown its folksy innocence in its own blood. In the following year, television would begin to purge itself of homespun shows and move to the edgier, darker and more urban. So yes, this film gets a small bit of its impetus right.
I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes involving Rick Dalton's new villainous image. The young actress he co-stars with is a delight. But beyond that, so much of the film seemed like vignettes for the sake of what-if. "Oh, Bruce Lee was alive back then. Let's throw in a bit with him." Okay, now show me why. Oh, they broke that Australian lady's car. Um, right. The scene with Pitt going to Spahn Ranch was to state they got Lena Dunham, Dakota Fanning and Bruce Dern in cameos? Got it. Because it didn't affect the plot.
For a Tarantino film, there were less and less truly iconic scenes than ever, and practically no quotable lines. This movie will be known for what? Flame throwers, Robbie's dirty feet and a tenacious pit bull? Ho hum.
The performances are basically fine - mostly actors playing types not characters. Even the impersonations of actual players seem cursory and perfunctory. Robbie's Tate is just Robbie playing an actress. Tate had a glance, an aura, a way. Robbie doesn't capture any of that for me. Tarantino has specifically stated that the character was more of a symbol anyway. Oh boy, let's get to that now.
The alternate reality ending was a concept that surely sounded good on paper to Tarantino. Yeah, who doesn't fantasize about going back and rewriting history, whether to save a million people, or a beautiful neighbor and her friends? The premise worked slightly better in Inglorious B*st*rds. Why? Because the intent was there: to stop the textbook definition of a genocidal maniac. Rick and Cliff bumbling into Tex and the Girls then having a farcical fight to the death doesn't save Sharon and restore some supposedly dwindling Hollywood period. It uses the memory then cheapens it, and eventually obliterates it. In so many sad ways, Sharon was the ultimate sacrifice of beauty and modesty. She had a fate that immortalized her. In this film, she is now the actress lady who lived next door to a couple of has-beens who beat up a bunch of equally goofy dirtbags who might have wanted to randomly harm her but probably would have messed it up because Tarantino has intentionally portrayed them as totally and comically inept. This would work in a Coen caper with randoms but Tarantino had to shoe-horn the Tate aspect in.
The soundtrack is a joy. It plays over a lot of driving tours of historic LA - so if you like that sort of thing, there is nostalgic use of music. But otherwise, this movie was lacking that cohesive thread that held something like The Player or Nashville together. It's an ending with some stuff leading up to it.