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As a general fan of movies about making movies, and Hollywood, I was intrigued by Babylon. Sure, it was over three hours long, but when I saw the trailer, I had to see it. The movie looks bonkers, truly wild and over the top. However, it also came with a cast headlined by Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, and also the direction of Damian Chazelle. I’ve never seen La La Land, but I did like Whiplash and First Man.
Babylon is a film about 1920s and 1930s Hollywood, and Los Angeles in general, with a title that calls to mind Hollywood Babylon and like that tome digs into the sordid side of celebrity, riches, and excess. It centers on three characters, though, all fictional. Brad Pitt plays Jack Conrad, an established movie star. Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a woman who has come to LA to try and make it. Diego Calva, largely an unknown, plays a Mexican immigrant who dreams of being on a movie set, and quickly finds himself working in the movie industry.
Chazelle’s film mirrors the excess of his version of Hollywood, in good ways and bad. I would call the first 10 minutes or so “openly antagonistic.” I worried about what I had gotten myself into sitting in the theater, to be honest. However, maybe he was hitting us over the head with some gross, shock-value moments in a “diving in head first” way. While there are still plenty of over-the-top moments, gross-out humor, and nudity, the film does throttle down.
That’s fortunate, because a movie could not sustain that level, and it would not be entertaining if somebody tried. The film is epic in scale, but it gets there through quiet moments as much as loud ones. Chazelle has some fantastic scenes and shots in Babylon, and the movie is loaded with strong, attention-grabbing performances. Robbie is great, and Pitt is good, but Calva is on their level and for a guy who is not a star on their level, that’s impressive. Also, Flea is in the movie! He’s quite good! So is Spike Jonze and Jean Smart and I could go on and on.
Now, this is a movie up my alley, and I am also somebody who is willing to sit down and watch a three-hour film. If you don’t have the affinity for movies about moviemaking, maybe Babylon won’t be for you. If you like epic bombast and great performances, though, it still will be. Although, it is admittedly not as good as the other Hollywood period piece starring costarring Margot Robbie, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.
