I watched this on the plane from Tokyo on the 27th of October, 2024.
Big fan. It’s basically a really long slice of life film, set in the late 60s of Hollywood, with an absolutely stacked cast. DiCaprio, Pitt, and Robbie as the three main characters are just incredible. The first two are given fantastic roles, as an insecure actor past his peak, and as a veteran and a stunt double, and they both lean into their strengths with aplomb (that being said, Pitt plays the person he normally plays, but DiCaprio’s portrayal of the potent mix of insecurity, ego, and sadness was amazing), but Robbie’s role was pretty minor I felt, with limited dialogue, until I found out that the character she portrays, Sharon (?) was a real actress murdered in the 60s, and that the intent was to show her happily living her live in an alternate world, which added a lot of depth to it.
I didn’t know it was a Tarantino film until the unnecessary feet shots.
I didn’t get a lot of it either at the time - apparently it was based on the Mason family cult and the murders they committed, of which Sharon was a victim, but I had no idea until I Googled afterwards, so a whole section on a ranch was basically meaningless to me, but I enjoyed it nevertheless! And I feel the film was less about the plot and more about revelling in the Hollywood of the time, and the Westerns that were so popular. Everything was sumptuous and brazen and a little squalid and exciting and unreachable.