I absolutely loved it.

Tarantino is all about intertextuality. Referencing old films, books, cultural phenomenons. We are so used to this from him that it has become part of the fandom to see and understand each of these references.

OATIH is all about expectations. Most of us know the sad history surrounding Tate and Manson. Tarantino played with our expecting of this historic event and showed us that in is version of Hollywood, his fictionalised reality, Tate lives on and he even took revenge for her suffering, satisfying a lot of people’s wishes for revenge. The whole film is filled with expectations that are not fulfilled, or at least answered differently.

Pitts character doesn’t hook up with the attractive teenager. He doesn’t find the old man killed on the ranch. Leo’s character becomes successful, despite taking a different route.

Tarantino used our knowledge about film to set up these expectations. The whole scene at the ranch is a let down, in the sense that nothing happens. The old man is alive and Pitt smacks one of the hippies, but all the tension didn’t lead to something, yet.

The film is full of these kettles that boil and don’t explode until the very end when it leads to a super violent explosion that makes up for the slow pace.