Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs...

3. The Uneven, Self-Indulgent Pacing

Now, Tarantino hasn't been in the business of making snappy, timely movies in years, and unsurprisingly, the film clocks in at a meaty 161 minutes.

Given the massive ensemble cast, it's not necessarily a bad thing, yet this movie gives The Hateful Eight competition for being the director's most brutally-paced outing to date.

More casual viewers are sure to loathe the fact that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood doesn't really have much of a plot to speak of, though that's hardly an inherent issue with the film - it's Tarantino's oddly lethargic direction during some scenes, especially those featuring Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), and his refusal to cut scenes to a more manageable length.

In many ways the film is reminiscent of Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice: it's more of a character-driven mood piece than a work of concrete storytelling, and its similarly laid-back tenor might leave even hardcore Tarantino fans feeling a little twitchy, especially during the flabby mid-section.

For others, they'll be happy just to soak in another near-three hours of Tarantino. By film's end, though, it does feel a little long in the tooth.