16 Dec Babylon Review

BABYLON

dir. Damien Chazelle, starring Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, and Jovan Adepo

Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s ode to Classic Hollywood, tells a number of semi interweaving stories of multiple people caught up in various stages of the film industry during the upheaval of the silent era entering the talkies. Filled with raucous parties, rampant alcohol and drug abuse, love, loss, and unbridled ambition, Chazelle paints the picture of a world devoid of morals or scruples.

A film that continues to explore Chazelle’s love of music, Babylon gives audiences a possible glimpse of life in the studio system back in the 1920s. With a first act that rivals Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street in terms of frantic energy at times, Babylon appears as an exclamation of the director’s love of film but reveals itself to be a standard retelling of similar ideas done better in other films. While it’s still highly amusing and entertaining to see the partying and the excess, there’s an emptiness behind it that rings hollow. With the aforementioned Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort and cronies are up to their ears in pills and blow and women, but Scorsese always takes time to remind his audience that the money these criminals use is pilfered from hardworking people via their stock market fraud. The same rings true for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby. Again, incredibly detailed and expertly shot scenes of outrageous excess and revelry, Luhrmann still reminds us of the vapidity of these characters who use the lavish events to fill a bottomless hole in their soul. Here in Babylon, the entire first act is spent on characters debasing themselves for entertainment’s sake, with little reason to care about the characters or their journeys. With a wasted first act that’s technically extraordinary but ultimately empty, the film finally settles into a typical rise and fall story of ego, greed, and influence. While Chazelle is in full control of his directorial powers, it’s his ability to craft a compelling narrative that, with a few standout scenes as exceptions, has Babylon buckle under its own weight.

Starring Brad Pitt, Babylon is a film that’s a perfect vehicle for the veteran actor. Pitt returned to the spotlight in 2022 headlining two movies, with Babylon being the better of them. As one of America’s foremost movie stars, Pitt is in his element as Jack Conrad, the silent film star on top of the world at the film’s outset. Not a far stretch for the actor, Pitt starts the movie going through the motions as he parties, drinks, and bounces between marriages. It’s not until the back half of the story does Academy Award Winning Brad Pitt show up, as Hollywood transitions from silent film to talkies and Conrad’s weaknesses are exposed. This realization, along with one powerful scene opposite Jean Smart, is when Pitt shines brightest, reminding audiences that while Jack Conrad’s days may be waning, the case isn’t such for Brad Pitt.

Babylon also stars Margot Robbie, who headlined two movies this year as well. Entering the story white-hot and stealing every bit of presence from anyone else on screen, Robbie is a complete whirlwind. Intoxicated or amped up on substances for the majority of the film’s runtime, Robbie’s Nellie LaRoy represents the meteoric rise of actors in an industry that chews up and spits out talent at an ungodly rate. Nellie has dreams, and Robbie plays the overwhelmed actress with every ounce of gusto she can muster. Bordering on almost being too chaotic a presence in the story, Nellie’s journey is the one that receives equal, if not more attention than Jack Conrad’s. With the exuberance of five Harley Quinns, only matched by the crash-and-burn lows of the character’s life, Nellie LaRoy is possibly Robbie’s best performance to date.

As Manny Torres, a Mexican American man with a different dream of Hollywood besides acting, Babylon is Diego Calva’s breakout role. Shouldering the reverse trajectory of Jack Conrad, Manny starts as one of Conrad’s assistants and works his way up. Calva is charming and earnest, the audience’s gateway into the insanity of 1920s Hollywood. Holding his own with both Pitt and Robbie, Calva’s Hispanic nature adds a narrative not often represented in stories from this era. Hard working, savvy, and quick on his feet, Torres is one of the tales of a successful and stable life in the midst of the insanity. Calva is a dream, and with Babylon he’s more than proven he’s ready for the spotlight.

Lastly, in the story that’s the most underserved yet one of the more narratively satisfying, is Jovan Adepo as Sidney Palmer, a jazz trumpet player, providing the musical entertainment for the film’s rowdier scenes. Palmer’s journey is similar in beats to Manny’s with the downside of the vast majority of it happening off screen. Palmer shows up in fits and spurts, aspiring to be a better musician and eventually gaining the recognition he deserves, albeit with negative consequences. Those consequences intersect with Manny’s ambitions and Adepo’s handling of these scenes is heartbreaking. Possibly the most interesting character in the story, a Black man trying to navigate the waters of a Caucasian dominated industry, is relegated to handful of scenes, made even more frustrating when his entire narrative arc is completed.

Remember that scene in Boogie Nights with Alfred Molina? You know the scene. That’s Toby Maguire in this film and he’s amazing for all eight or 10 minutes he’s on screen.

Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, Babylon sets the filmmakers sights on one of the most historic eras of American history. Imbuing the movie with a spirit and energy completely absent from his previous film, First Man, the filmmaker puts on full display the zeal with which Hollywood and its elites attacked life. Playing the with the classic tropes of the time (the eager young starlet, the powerhouse whose glory days are coming to an end, the outsiders attempting to break in), Chazelle fails to really mine any new depths or add commentary to a well-trod timeframe that Hollywood tends to look fondly back on while conveniently ignoring its darker elements. He proves yet again to be a far better director than writer; the camerawork, the costuming, the overall production of Babylon is by far the best he’s accomplished in his short time in the industry. While La La Land proved he’s adept at set pieces, Babylon’s first act has shown him step his game up considerably, full of long tracking shots, masterful timing, expertly comedic editing, and crisp sound design. If nothing else, the film is beautiful to look at throughout, even at the story’s more mundane parts. While Chazelle and his crew rightfully deserved to be recognized for these visual feats, it’s his writing and pacing that hinders the movie elevating from good to great.

Overall, while thoroughly entertaining at times, Babylon as a whole feels like an empty affair. Technically dazzling, Damien Chazelle’s impressive cinematography and production design aren’t enough to cover for what’s essentially a run-of-the-mill Old Hollywood story with little new to add. With a runtime just north of three hours, the movie’s opening scenes of chaos, depravity, and debauchery starts the film with a jolt of energy, loses momentum in the second act, and ends with a heavy handed and baffling montage dedicated to the power of cinema. A roller coaster ride of a movie, for better or for worse, Babylon feels its length and will leave some viewers in a state of confusion as the credits roll. Babylon hit theaters December 23rd.

Review by Darryl Mansel