It requires you to have the same (or at least understand his) reverence for Hollywood/LA lore. He portrays it as a place with a strong sense of Movie Magic/Movie History, and then within that urban fairytale he seeks to subvert that real history to grant a sort of small, retroactive justice to one of its unfortunate starlets, because she represents a million other starry eyed people who went to Hollywood to "make it" for a love of movies. I guess he's simultaneously showing the power and the grime of the LA dream, and also just having fun bending the reality of it.

It's his favourite because it's probably the most personal one in terms of representing his feelings about filmmaking and LA. It's like a film nerds love letter.

But all that makes it less accessible if you're just there for pure story, not atmos.

Yeah, I felt the same way. I was waiting for the twist and it just never happened. Hateful Eight was ok, I felt bad for the coach driver.