The writing isn't very good. The movie meanders. There's no reason for the 2 hour 40 minute running time. Still, I wasn't sorry I saw it. I share the director's affection for this time and place. Looking at Brad Pitt for three hours is never a bad thing. He gave a very good performance as a stunt man who didn't take crap from anyone, but you have to be disturbed that his character might have killed his wife and gotten away with it.

I could have done without a lot of the violence in the movie, which sometimes had a horror movie quality.

Strangely, Manson and his followers looked more like actors than the actors playing them. At times the aesthetic of the late sixties was captured perfectly, like Tarantino's homage to LA's neon signs. The way people talked and acted was sometimes portrayed faithfully, at other times not.

Overall, a lot of people would be glad to see this film, but it can be amateurish and undisciplined.