Once Upon a Time in Hollywood  ★★★½

QUENTIN Tarantino’s latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is stunning in its recreations, highly entertaining, cleverly written and impressively acted.

So why do I think it’s not one of his best?

Let’s start with the fact that expectations were through the roof in anticipation of this film.

And why not; it’s Tarantino after all. The man himself can also be his own worst enemy, revelling in the attention and always promising to deliver something special.

Yes, he has done that again, but this time it’s a film to be admired and appreciated rather than loved and revered.

When the marketing machine first cranked to life a couple of years ago we were told this would be a Charles Manson story.

It turns out not to be, but I guess that’s not unexpected.

What is unexpected is a final result on screen that doesn’t quite soar, doesn’t fill you with shock or awe, like many of his other films.

The final 40 minutes does, but that’s because it delivers on the premise I wanted – what if the Manson cult members had knocked on the wrong door on that fateful night in August 1969?

But the preceding two hours is the film that Tarantino wanted to make – an adoring tribute to the era during which he personally fell in love with the moving image.

He is such a skilful director and writer that he manages to make something that might be considered self-indulgent and niche still highly engaging for most of us.

Other more casual Tarantino viewers may be a little, dare I say it, bored at some points, particularly during a long, signature sequence that recreates his revisionist version of a typical TV western series of the time.

Luckily, leads Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt give such likable, nuanced performances they enhance every scene. But still many seem self-contained, rather than relating to a clear narrative or character progression.

There is a scene where up-and-coming actress Sharon Tate sits in a cinema watching herself in a new film.

It’s well-acted by Margot Robbie and tells us a little about the character at that moment. But by film’s end we struggle to see what relevance the scene ultimately had to where her character ends up.

Again, the TV western sequence features terrific acting from DiCaprio and an emotional pay-off. But ultimately how does it relate to the film’s conclusion?

It doesn’t – and that’s the main problem. It’s as if Tarantino predominantly made his film – the film for the fans that really ‘get him’ – and then stitched on a last act to satisfy the rest of us.

There are other problems – one character is presented as having possibly committed a terrible crime in his past, yet this comes to nothing.

Support characters are introduced and create fascinating moments. But too often that’s all they are – fascinating, clever, interesting, entertaining moments.

But the threads aren’t woven together satisfactorily, Compare this to Pulp Fiction or Inglorious Basterds where every scene is working both in and of itself and fitting perfectly into the whole.

Other problems? Tarantino always plays with the time sequence which is fine, but on a couple of occasions here it’s hard to tell something is a flashback or they are inserted so late in the piece they distract from the build-up of tension.

The film starts in great comic fashion but the tone flips to serious during the long middle section before ending the way it started. I appreciate more when Tarantino is constantly juggling the two.

In case you’re wondering what the story is (sorry about that) it predominantly focuses on the relationship between two fictional characters – insecure actor Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt), framed within the historical context of Hollywood, hippie culture and a fractured take on the Manson Family.

It’s two hours and 40 minutes long but, apart from a baggy middle, holds the attention as Dalton and Booth interact with the likes of the actual – Sharon Tate, Steve McQueen, Bruce Lee, etc – and the fanciful, including Kurt Russell’s stunt co-ordinator, Al Pacino’s movie producer and Bruce Dern’s film set owner.

Other stand-outs are Margaret Qualley as hippie Pussycat and Timothy Olyphant as another television cowboy but the two Australians, Robbie and Damon Herriman as Charles Manson, are not given enough to do.

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is overwhelmingly for fans of film and nostalgia and those who prefer Tarantino in smaller doses.

I prefer to have the fuller, crazier, edgier Tarantino experience.

MY RANKING OF TARANTINO’S NINE FILMS TO DATE

1 Pulp Fiction

2 Inglorious Basterds

3 Kill Bill Vols I and II (Note: QT treats them as one; otherwise Vol II would be number 8 of 10 on my list)

4 Django Unchained

5 Jackie Brown

6 Reservoir Dogs

7 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

8 The Hateful Eight

9 Death Proof