I know it’s fashionable to hate Quentin Tarantino by those who don’t really like or understand movies that much and are embroiled in identity power jockeying, but Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a movie that causes one to think about it days after viewing. How many movies do that? I’d say maybe one in twenty I watch, if that.

That said, I mostly agree with this review. As I noted earlier, the movie is sort of a mess. But it’s a glorious mess.

And this scene really did shine.

Tate represents an innocence about show business that is best realized in a scene where Tate ducks into the Bruin Theater in Westwood to watch The Wrecking Crew, in which she appears alongside Dean Martin’s James Bond knockoff Matt Helm. Listening and looking around at the audience as they laugh and respond to her performance, Robbie makes Tate’s delight palpable and heartfelt — the sheer, unfiltered joy of making movies (for perhaps the director as well) captured in her dazzling smile.

Kudos to Robbie to selling that so well with no dialogue and sitting down, too. Whatever his flaws, unlike a lot of directors Tarantino consistently gets top-notch performances out of his cast.