With his earlier films, Tarantino took his influences and remixed them, making homage-laden films that still felt fresh, but this feels as slavish recreation as sections of the new The Lion King in terms of recreating things that already existed. Especially when it is inconsistent. Or compare the way Tarantino treats Margot Robbie as Tate versus DiCaprio as Dalton. DiCaprio gets lovingly inserted or stars in recreated footage, while Robbie’s Tate only gets to watch the real one on a movie screen bare feet up. But more on that further down. It’s possible that this film is primarily aimed at those who remember this era, or grew up idolizing it. But where Death Proof made me excited to watch Vanishing Point, the tedious pace of this film doesn’t inspire me to seek out Gunsmoke or Navajo Joe. Where his earlier films pointed to their references in a fun and dare I say welcoming way. Pulp Fiction and Death Proof make you feel like you’re being taught to speak secret language. Hollywood is so steeped in a time and place that without a working knowledge of the Manson Family, it would be easy to not even understand why particular scenes are meant to be tense.

Full review on Cinema76.com: www.cinema76.com/home/2019/7/25/watching-television-in-public-once-upon-a-timein-hollywood-is-not-how-it-ought-to-be