Babylon (2022)

I keep forgetting that Damien Chazelle also made First Man, a feature film about Neil Armstrong that I own, but have yet to watch. I mention it here because after seeing Babylon, I immediately commented that Chazelle seems intent on turning every movie he makes into a musical, even if they are non-traditional presentations. I would like to stand by that, but I guess it all depends on how the content of First Man is presented.*

Babylon is about the Hollywood of the 1920s. It’s a place of great excess and debauchery, where the alcohol and drugs flow as easily as the sexual partners. Brad Pitt plays a classic Hollywood star named Jack Conrad, a misbehaving manchild who knows how to keep playing the game. Margot Robbie is a super-talented amateur named Nellie LaRoy, ready to take the world by storm, but not actually aware of how she needs to stay in line to compensate for the times when she can be way out of line. And then there’s Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a young man who gets himself in the right place at the right time, gaining an opportunity to rise from “fixer” to a main role in the studio system. These three people are the main focus of the story, but they aren’t necessarily prepared for what is about to change their working methods. Sound is coming. It’s going to be huge. And it’s going to cause a number of problems.

Many have mentioned that Babylon starts with a sequence that has an elephant defecating all over a couple of people. You see this in stomach-churning detail, with one shot pretending to be from inside the elephant, looking directly out of the pulsing anus. Now there’s a sentence I never thought I would write. Anyway, people have said that this sums up the experience of the film, with Chazelle pouring a lot of stinky effluence over viewers. I disagree with the second half of that sentiment, but it certainly seems to be in line with everything you get throughout the rest of the 189-minute runtime.

Chazelle is actually using one or two VERY familiar cinematic touchstones, overtly referenced in the beautiful final sequence of the movie (I am not going to mention them here, realising how close they align is part of the joy), but he ensures that this particular narrative journey is one dizzying high followed by a slow and bumpy ride down to hellish low points. Making use of a brilliantly propulsive score (Justin Hurwitz shining once again), Chazelle whisks viewers from one dazzling and dizzying sequence to the next, only faltering in a third act that changes the rhythm to something almost unforgivably downbeat.

Pitt and Robbie are both excellent in their roles, the former convincing as the star he is meant to be, even when the shine starts to dim, and the latter acting brilliantly crass and gung-ho while she is full of beliefs in her own natural talent. Pitt gets even better as the storyline for him winds down, but Robbie sadly ends up mired in an overwrought bit of melodrama. Calva, the connective tissue between those two stars, as well as a few others, gives a performance that should bag him some more roles in features of this calibre. Whether it does or not, considering how divisive this film has proven to be, remains to be seen, but I will certainly be checking out some of his previous work in the meantime. Jean Smart is as good as ever, playing a showbiz columnist named Elina St. John, and she works beautifully with both Pitt and Robbie in two of the best scenes in the film. Jovan Adepo also gets some great moments, playing a black musician named Sidney Palmer who has to decide how much he will put up with in the name of fame, and Li Jun Li lights up the screen whenever her character, Lady Fay Zhu, appears, although I wish she had a bit more screentime. And I have to mention Tobey Maguire, giving a creepy and wonderfully weird portrayal of a character that feels like a degraded and toxic portrait of his character from The Great Gatsby.

I really liked a lot of Babylon, and I absolutely loved some moments, but I am not sure I ever want to watch it again. Chazelle, indulging himself as excessively as some of the onscreen characters, albeit in more acceptable ways, doesn’t get the balance quite right. I think there were better ways to tie these stories together, perhaps even bringing in more supporting characters to bear the brunt of the harsher plot points. Regardless of the mis-steps though, I view this as quite an achievement. I doubt many will even like it as much as I do, but I am happy for the few who will end up absolutely loving it.

*EDIT: I have now been reliably informed that (sadly?) First Man is absolutely not a musical. So that is that.

7/10 

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