A few years back, Tarantino had a clever idea in the form of a "what if?" question: What if there had been a ruthlessly aggressive bunch of Jewish soldiers who had successfully combatted the evil Nazis in Europe during WW2? Somehow, I felt the whole thing was crude and insensitive in a way. But here we have this clever idea (what if the evil hippies who murdered the guests at Polanski's house in 1969 had wandered into a different house and instead met a grisly fate of their own?) used much more successfully. Why? Because the preceding 2 hours locates us in Hollywood, where the streets are paved with fantasies. Though this vastly entertaining movie is masterfully done, and the stars show us why they deserve to be just that, this movie most likely will disappoint those who are not too familiar with the awful events we seem sure are going to be depicted at the end. The final 20 minutes give us a very unexpected bloodbath, with the bonus of an equally unexpected happy ending. Neat trick, and it could only happen at the movies. Can anything top this for the year's best movie? Not bloody likely, I'd say.
