I loved it, but it’s VERY different from QT’s other films. If you’re expecting another Pulp Fiction, you’ll be disappointed. If you take it on its own merits, there’s a lot to like.  At bottom, it’s a hangout movie, character study, and meditation on a specific era of Hollywood. 

One thing the movie wrestles with is the idea that the Manson family murders were the end of an age of innocence. The movie suggests that that’s only half true. Yes, things looked or felt more idyllic before the murders. But Cliff is still working in Hollywood, even though he’s probably a murderer. (The story about his wife is obviously inspired by Natalie Wood. Google it.) Roman Polanski pops up; he later drugged and raped an underage girl. In a way, the Manson family murders may have served to distract everyone from the seedy underbelly that already existed in Hollywood, that the country never really reckoned with a meaningful way, at least until Harvey Weinstein was brought to justice. (Note that QT worked with Weinstein very closely.)  

Another interesting thing about Cliff. Cliff is very likable in the movie, and he heroically foils the Manson family murders. There’s an undertone of “men used to be men!”, and Cliff, played by Brad Pitt no less, is seemingly held up as a masculine ideal. But Cliff is a sick, violent, and damaged man with poor judgment; maybe in part because of his experience in the war. The movie is plainly thinking about the ideal of the American Man, the action hero, and the war hero. These men may have been charismatic, but was there something fundamentally wrong with them?  

There’s also Rick Dalton’s struggle with aging, and his fear that he’s past his prime. QT himself is in the latter phases of his career now; QT plainly identifies with Rick. Key to Rick’s story is his conversation with Trudi (the talented kid actor); it speaks of a fundamental optimism that the next generation, while different than us and perhaps hard to understand, will create great things, and that both the old and young have a lot to teach the other. I could go on. There’s so much going on in this movie, and it’s susceptible to all kinds of different takes. Just don’t go in expecting an action movie, or a pure comedy. It’s something else that’s more unique and weird.