Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Al Pacino, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Luke Perry, Mike Moh, Rafal Zawierucha, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Margaret Qualley, Lena Dunham, Dakota Fanning, Maya Hawke, Austin Butler, Madisen Beaty, Mikey Madison, Costa Ronin, Samantha Robinson, Kansas Bowling, Harley Quinn Smith, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Zoë Bell, Damon Herriman and Kurt Russell

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Synopsis: Leonardo DiCaprio is Rick Dalton, a star of the big screen in the 1950s who is slowly coming to grips with his fading status as a leading man. Alongside him, keeping him right is Brad Pitt as his stunt double Cliff Booth. They rely on each other using their strengths to help their weaknesses. Next door live Rafal Zawierucha as Roman Polanski and Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, who in contrast to Dalton and Booth live a life of glitz and glamour, but given what we know about them as real life people, we as an audience are constantly on edge about how Tarantino will handle Sharon’s August 9th, 1969 fate at the hands of The Manson Family

It’s taken me a few days to process how much I actually liked Tarantino’s tenth film (ninth if you’re not including Death Proof). I definitely enjoyed spending close to three hours watching it, but having always had a morbid curiosity in the Manson Family’s murder of Sharon Tate and four others, I wasn’t sure how I felt about Tarantino adding his own twist to this historical event in the same way he has Adolf Hitler blown to smithereens at the end of Inglorious Basterds. The ending, albeit a happy one, left me with a strange bittersweet feeling given the reality of the situation.

Honestly, given how Tarantino was criticised prior to the film’s worldwide release for the amount of dialogue he gave Robbie as Tate and consequently how important she was to the story, the film’s third act instead focusing on Dalton and Booth coming up against the Manson Family trio of Tex Walker (Butler), Susan Atkins (Madison) and Patricia Krenwinkel (Beaty) should have come as no real surprise. It’s a finale that, for me, really highlights how this film belongs to Pitt. DiCaprio is, fittingly for his role in the film, the leading man. He’s the one we see struggle with being cast aside as the elite of Hollywood’s Golden Age and strive to fight back to the top with a stellar performance in Lancer – with Olyphant as James Stacy and the late Luke Perry as Wayne Maunder – however it’s Brad Pitt who we can’t help but watch over the course of the film and simply marvel at how good and how cool he is. A prime example is the controversial flashback where he spars on the set of The Green Hornet with Bruce Lee (Moh). Regardless of how Lee is portrayed, the scene gifts us Pitt at his comedic best throughout. Before the fight where he reminds Lee that killing anyone with your fists is manslaughter and that his “lethal weapons” aren’t special, during where the martial arts legend is thrown full pelt into a car, and the climax of that moment where a seething Janet Miller (Bell) and her staggered husband, Randy (Russell – who is also the film’s narrator) proceed to kick him off the set and ultimately out of any future stunt role where Dalton works with them.

Kurt Russell happening to be the film’s narrator can bring us to another aspect of the film that seemed “off” when we consider Tarantino’s previous eight films, and that’s the way the world building of Hollywood is done. The first twenty minutes introduces us to Dalton, Booth, Marvin Schwarz (Pacino), Tate and Roman Polanski (Zawierucha) in the form of television interviews, restaurants meetings and for the latter, in the form of driving past Dalton and Booth on the way to their house next door. The opening sees one brief piece of narration from Russell who tells us why Dalton doesn’t have his own car, and we don’t hear from Russell again in a narrative role until the third act where he, somewhat quickly, runs down what Dalton and Booth, Tate, Sebring (Hirsch), Folger (Robinson) and Frykowski (Ronin) were doing in the build up to The Family trio’s arrival on Cielo Drive. In contrast, when Tate and Polanski arrive at the Playboy Mansion for a party, we see Steve McQueen (Lewis), Michelle Phillips (Rittenhouse) and the above-mentioned Jay Sebring rapidly introduced by name titles. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really impact the film negatively, but the mixing of so many different ways to introduce characters felt somewhat rushed, which isn’t what you’d expect in a Tarantino. That being said, in regards to introducing and fleshing out characters, Damian Lewis’ explanation of the relationship between Tate, Polanski and Sebring is very good. “I didn’t stand a chance“.

Of course, what we do get in this film is a lot of classic Tarantino, from the broad selections of music to fit the sixties setting – if you’re not playing Neil Diamond’s “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show” on repeat for days it’ll be because you’re singing and playing The Mamas and The Papas’ “California Dreamin'”. Additionally most of the Tarantino film regulars pop up at some point alongside Russell and Bell including Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern as George Spahn and Tarantino himself as the narrator of Dalton’s fifties serial, Bounty Law and as the director of the Red Apple cigarettes (another Tarantino film regular) mid-credits scene. He also brings in a lot of new with the old, as Harley Quinn Smith, Kansas Bowling, Maya Hawke and Margaret Qualley star as members of The Manson Family, however the star of the younger cast is the ten year old Julia Butters who aces her role as Trudi Fraser – Who said Quentin Tarantino couldn’t write strong female characters? In a film with a boat load of great dialogue, it’s Fraser’s monologue on why she prefers to be called an actor rather than an actress that is quintessential Tarantino writing.

While DiCaprio, Pitt and the rest, as you can expect, do great with the script Tarantino’s given them (don’t go in expecting any quotable moments on the level of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs though), allowing us to laugh at a good 90% of the film and sympathise with Rick Dalton for about 5% of it, it’s the moments of silence that really stand out and build an eerie aura on the western and contemporary sixties sets. Yeah, your heart starts racing when that Six Months Later appears on screen and a newly married Rick Dalton arrives home from Italy where he’s starred in several Sergio Corbucci (Tarantino makes sure we know he’s the second greatest western director, after Sergio Leone) and Antonio Margheriti (you can think back to Inglorious Basterds with that one too) films, but perhaps the creepiest scene of the film comes on George Spahn’s ranch where we as an audience and Cliff Booth are properly introduced to the many members of The Manson Family. We don’t know how it’s going to go and can expect the worst on this occasion from Booth, and in fact, it may well be my favourite moment of the entire film.

Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to an era he was unable to live to the fullest is a fun, easygoing buddy film that features DiCaprio and Pitt in top form while keeping us on our toes remembering the daunting underlying context. Margot Robbie’s performance allows us to view Sharon Tate as someone who was constantly full of joy, and on the other hand, with Damon Herriman starring as Charles Manson for less than two minutes, Tarantino maintains the cult leader’s mystique at the same time as managing to not glorify him as a star of the big screen. I wouldn’t rank this as one of my absolute favourite Tarantino films, but I’d definitely recommend it if you’re a fan of any of his films.

Rating: 4/5