Parts of this film are utterly engaging-Dalton is a a great character and Leo's performance is a wonderful self-parody-but on the whole the film is not successful and it is at war with itself. The main issue is the story's tension largely derives from what the viewer knows about the (actual) Manson murders but because of a key re-write of history that knowledge is irrelevant to the narrative you are watching. Once the film ends you realize how much of it was a narrative slight of hand because key scenes of dread and threat are only that because of the actual history. But the film's narrative discards key aspects of that history for some cheap fantasy; worse Manson being a racist trying to start a race war with the murders is utterly ignored. Yeah sure I wish bad things didn't happen but it is such an idle desire and in this case a big bad thing, white supremacy, isn't even mentioned.

Furthermore the film is overstuffed; there is a lot of period detail and character info that isn't needed for the narrative. On the first viewing it is OK because again you are expecting the actual history to play out but when it doesn't the scenes are made pure filler. A tighter narrative was needed.

The film is up to QT's standards of visual detail. It feels like the late 60's and there is a lot of neat things to look at. QT still knows how the film violence that is gross, funny and intense. The cinematography is also quite soft on the eyes. But I must mention that QT's foot fetish is way to obvious in this film. You always know what an actress has on her feet and far too many the answer is nothing. This aspect is cringe inducing when coupled with the cheap fantasy of the ending. The implication about QT's feeling towards Tate is something I didn't need to have confirmed.

But man the Dalton side of this film is just great.