Babylon Review: Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie soar through early Hollywood in Damien Chazelle’s wild and tumultuous ride

After great success and Oscars for films ranging from whiplash to the country to First guy Returning to an early dream project first envisioned 15 years ago, director/writer Damien Chazelle takes an unbiased look at early Hollywood, a time when not only movies went from silent to sound, but Go Angeles itself has flourished from desert to bulging metropolis. People were stuck in a tumultuous time of change, and for some it didn’t always work out. As the resulting film and years of careful research show, Babylon is a feast for the eyes, a decadent, free-spirited, sometimes even poignant look at a group of dreamers, stars, fringe figures and anyone who wanted a piece of a world spiraling out of control, tumultuous and full of promise – and downfall.

With more than 100 speaking parts and a widescreen cast of extras, Chazelle has created a vision of Hollywood of the era that seems strikingly original but strangely fitting for the man who led another group of Hollywood dreamers through a more romantic and viewed through a contemporary lens. the country, the film that would make him the youngest Oscar winner ever for Best Director, with 14 nominations and 6 wins. He seems drawn to the intrigue, but whoever ventures into this generation-separated city still finds LA a magnet. in the Babylon It’s breathtaking to see an untamed and adventurous transition from a new world to something that will be more controlled and corporate once it starts talking, but the view from above and below before it gets there is a wild ride like no other others in recent theaters do not.

That seems to be the goal here. Chazelle organized screenings of some of the most ambitious and risky films of all time in projection rooms to draw inspiration from the early days of writing this Hollywood epic. He and his staff checked everything from the likes of DW Griffiths Massive intolerance to wing to La DolceVita to Nashville to Burger Kane to Chinatown, The Godfather Part 2, Apocalypse Now, There Will Be Blood, Cabaret and more. you have the idea if Babylon, at 3 hours and 9 minutes Not quite reaching those heights, it’s guaranteed to be a movie to remember, a wild journey down an unimaginable rabbit hole of excess and wonderful behavior that stands on its own in 2022 and more than its stripes. earn.

Story-wise, it focuses on a few main characters, including wide-eyed Manny Torres (a breakout role for Diego Calva), a young Mexican hoping to find work in films, who finds an open door at a wild party hosted is by a top manager. Executive (Jeff Garlin), one in which he promises to deliver an elephant (!) to spice up the process (he wasn’t really, Peta, but you could have fooled me). Literally stuck in this gathering is actress wannabe Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), who drives her car right into the entrance and then crashes into all the totally confused and densely populated residents of this gathering, people snorting what looks like mountains of cocaine , dance until dawn, word naked and licentious and seem to have no limits. Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a major silent film star who first introduced driving in the heat of action (Pitt used a hilarious Italian accent) with his soon-to-be ex-wife Ina (Olivia Wilde in a hilarious cameo appearance ). Manny befriends Nellie, and Elinor St. John (an amazing Jean Smart), the best gossip columnist who has seen and written it all, looks at the madness here. It’s colorful stuff.

We can follow these characters as Nellie rises, Jack descends, Manny ends up in both right and wrong places, and their individual fates take intriguing, slightly unexpected turns. There are many more that we meet. An artist inspired by Anna May Wong, the outstanding Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) who, apart from singing songs like “My Girl’s Pussy” (a real song from the period), does other odd jobs for survival; Black jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer (a great Jovan Adepo), who finds tremendous success when his musical talent meets the needs of an industry entering the sonic age; Ruth Adler (Olivia Hamilton, who is also a producer here), a dedicated director with a clear vision for her film; her assistant director Max (a hilarious PJ Byrne), who is clearly heading for a nervous breakdown in one instance Babylonian noisy signature scenes where Nellie fails to hit her target on the first throw; and the imposing and psychopathic James McKay (Tobey Maguire, as you’ve never seen him before), a shady criminal who gets Manny and Nellie into trouble.

fleas (yes, That Flea) plays a studio fixer; Max Minghella is legendary studio prodigy Irving Thalberg; Rory Scovel plays the count who wants to act but survives by providing the drugs everyone needs to operate at these levels of insanity; Eric Roberts as Nellie’s father; Katherine Waterston as one of Jack’s many wives; etc. The number of extras is far too numerous to count, but they all seem comfortable in various stages of orgiastic undress. For a film filmed during Covid, the scope and sheer size on display here is something to behold.

It’s a film that twists and turns, with Chazelle packing on almost too much, which seems to be exactly what this version of early Hollywood required. Remarkably, he manages the shifting tones from raunchy comedy (in this scene, endless filming for Nellie) to epic on-location work, to wild parties, and just about anything else you can imagine. Towards the end, when Maguire comes in (he’s also an executive producer), that tone changes dramatically, becoming almost too dark to blend with anything before it, but the film recovers beautifully with a coda set years later in a theater playing, a new movie musical, sing in the rain The action takes place in the same period of the 1920s when silence gave way to talk. It’s the perfect tribute to Chazelle.

production method Babylon is top notch with sharp cinematography by Linus Sandgren, sumptuous costume design by Mary Zophres, sublime production design by Florenzia Martin and Anthony Carlino, and a superb score by Justin Hurwitz, the Oscar-winning composer of the country who worked with Chazelle on all his films.

Robbie is simply sensational here in an attempted break that really lands. Smart is chilling, especially in her brilliantly acted pivotal scene with Pitt, where she tells Jack the sad truth about his dwindling career. Pitt is also brilliant here and wonderfully natural in an almost wistful turn, here as a star who knows his time is fleeting, a glimpse from time to time One more Hollywood. Calva is an important find.

Babylon maybe not for everyone. This is no cookie cutter, and Chazelle doesn’t hold back. It can be exhausting at times, but as something completely original and hearkening to the spirit of filmmakers ready to swing, it’s refreshing as hell. Producers are Marc Platt, Matthew Plouffe and Hamilton. Paramount opens it wide on December 23rd.