Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Margaret Qualley, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Hollywood, 1969. Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of the successful TV show Bounty Law, is struggling with not being able to get roles outside of guest appearances as the bad guy on TV pilots. Adding to his personal crisis is the fact that hot director Roman Polanski and his actress wife Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), live next door. His loyal stunt man Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) has now become his chauffeur and only real friend, taking care of Rick's errands while he is filming and winding up discovering Charles Manson's flower children hiding out at Spahn's Movie Ranch.
Tarantino's 9th film is a leisurely paced ode to the golden age of Hollywood. Despite clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, there isn't a lot of plot. However, the film is a refreshing change of pace for Tarantino, whose films are usually tinged with some sort of unpleasantness or nastiness that can prove to be off putting (although his foot fetish does turn up occasionally). Instead, we follow all the various characters around Los Angeles, just existing. Rick is busy filming a guest role, Cliff is busy driving around on various projects to make ends meet and Sharon goes to buy a book and ends up watching a movie that she is in, enjoying being with a crowd reacting to the film. It's not the most exciting plot, but Tarantino is able to wrangle some tension once Manson and his group of followers show up.
Across the board, the acting is fantastic, as is the period detail. DiCaprio gets the best written part, which allows his character to get introspective with becoming a has-been. Pitt is good, although he and DiCaprio don't share a lot of scenes together. It seems like a waste of his considerable talent, as he isn't given much to do other than drive around for the first 2/3rds of the film. He really steps up in the third act and helps sell the events of the that act. While much has been made of the lack of dialogue for Margot Robbie, and whether you believe Tarantino's reason that he just wanted to let people see Sharon exist on screen, she is delightful in the film and embodies Sharon's lively spirit. Even the actors in smaller roles fully embody the spirit of the film and add considerably to the proceedings.
Like Inglorious Basterds, the ending proves to be a bit of a dice role. Without going into spoilers, the culmination of how Tarantino positions the characters in the final ten minutes is masterful and the ending will surely be talked about.
This isn't one of his best, but it is still a fascinating and loving look at Hollywood with a surprising ending. Worth seeing on a big screen and if you can seek it out on 35mm or 70mm.
B+