Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Tarentino, but a little bit different. Typical awesome dialogue, a little bit of jumping around in timelines, but flashbacks are obvious and relate directly to what's going on in the present, so even those were more conventional. The ultra-violence was all saved for the very end, which is also different for him. But man, once it starts... whoa!
I was reading some early reviews of this, and a lot of people had trouble with the pacing. Lots of shots of Leo and Brad driving around Hollywood in Michael Madsen's yellow Cadillac. I had no issue with the pacing. I thought it conveyed exactly the mood he wanted, which is what I wanted.
Similar to Inglorious Basterds in that it offers an alternate reality. A mix of real and fictitious characters, often interacting directly, and then the ending is not what really happened, but something plausible (within the Tarentino universe anyway), and presumably what people would have preferred. I knew some of the background surrounding the Sharon Tate murder and the Manson family shit, but not all, so there were some scenes which played differently for me. I found that interesting, and the scenes were no less tense for me. Just different.
I watched it and kept it on the DVR to watch again, then my wife saw it and told me she wanted to watch it, which surprised me because she usually doesn't care for Tarentino. But she'd heard that this one was different, which it is, plus it won some Oscars and stuff, so we'll watch it together at some point. As with all Tarentino films, I'm sure I'll like it even more the next time.
Holy shit, Margo Robbie is gorgeous! But you knew that already. So did I. Still, holy shit!
Five flamethrowers out of five. Would watch again, and definitely will.