Rating: 2/5
Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) starred in the TV show Bounty Law in the 50s. Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) was his stunt double. Now, in 1969, the two are close friends — Rick mostly does TV villain roles, but Cliff can’t find much work after the allegations that he murdered his wife.
Rick’s agent, Marvin Schwartz (Al Pacino), advises Rick to look into Spaghetti Westerns. Rick thinks he’s above for that shit, even though he’s done cheap exploitation that would, by all definitions, be more embarrassing.
Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha) return home after a long trip. They live next door to Rick. Sharon talks about a new friend she doesn’t think Roman would like.
The film follows Rick and Cliff’s journey to the bottom, visiting in on Sharon Tate every now and again to see her feet.
For a three-hour movie, not much happens. It’s a lot of “Remember this song? This ad? This brand of beer?” Like, 1/2 of the movie is that.
He goes through the exhaustive expense to recreate 1969 LA. But for every old film style he approaches, he goes for expensive over authentic, claiming he wants it to feel like it did in his childhood memories. It’s another way of saying he’ll do whatever he wants, fuck you very much.
The movie has a lot of hot people being hot. Unrelatedly, I’ve never seen more foot shots in my life. The way every actress points their bare feet — they received SPECIFIC direction.
DiCaprio has the most emotionally resonant scene in the movie. Him doing a TV pilot with real-life TV actors Timothy Olyphant and Luke Perry is a clever way to signal his decline in status.
I hated how they characterized Bruce Lee. Also, how they handled the Manson family shit is bizarre.
The third act is such a clumsy mess — one scene is disgusting, misguided, and legitimately ruins the entire movie. What’s worse is that Tarantino wrote the film in reverse with that scene in mind.
This film is glossy, well-acted, and has moments that work for me. Tarantino is a good director and a fascinating storyteller. Here, his indulgence does not pay off.