I really wanted to love this, and there are lovely (and truly shocking) moments but the movie as a whole is wildly unfocused. This is because Tarantino opts to use a similar narrative structure to Inglorious Basterds - characters are set up, real history is introduced and ultimately completely fucked with for shock value. The history in occupied France is easily pliable, and Tarantino makes the most of it with a focused script. That’s much less true here, and the pairing of Di Caprio and Pitt never has a chance to take off. Individually they have awesome moments (although some really rambling scenes), but their chemistry together is downplayed in favour of Tarantino’s never ending love letter to Silver Age American television. When he tries to be clever it crawls, but he doesn’t scrimp on the more familiar shocks - the leads’ crossover with Sharon Tate and the Manson cult closes with even more scream-worthy scenes than Pitt’s last outing with Tarantino. Once Upon a time... is interesting, even though there isn’t a single likeable character, but it’s really hard work when it shouldn’t be.