Damien Chazelle’s latest is one of the most controversial movies of the year, if only because it’s sparked a huge conversation about movies. It’s funny that a movie about the changing canvas of filmmaking sparked a very heated discourse about the changing canvas movies and bringing in audiences. The financial bomb feels a lot like Damien Chazelle correcting course for the sake of Oscar glory. Where as “La La Land” was a simple movie with aspirations to pay tribute to Hollywood, “Babylon” is a large, overlong, sweeping epic that aspires to pay tribute to Hollywood.
It doesn’t just pay tribute to Hollywood, though, it bends over to kiss its own ass every chance it gets.
Set in 1920s Los Angeles, “Babylon” led by an ensemble is a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous decadence, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled depravity, and violent ambition in early Hollywood. Lives and careers begin to change as Hollywood begins to shift in to the era of “talkies.” I am still not sure if Chazelle intended “Babylon” to be an indictment of Hollywood hedonism, or a celebration of it. He enters in to his period piece with a peek in to the darker corner of 1920’s Hollywood, laying the groundwork for a variety of sub-plots and asides.
Along the way there’s an elephant exploding feces on to an animal handler, a man getting a champagne bottle shoved up his butt, large amounts of drug use, rabid sex at every corner, and projectile vomiting. It never allows the audience to take a breather. Director Chazelle jumps between characters taking the page from Paul Thomas Anderson, sweeping back and forth with extended takes and long pans a la “Boogie Nights.” He really wants “Babylon” to be an old time Hollywood version of “Boogie Nights.”
It’s a movie about the rise and fall of screen stars, the cruel film system that can destroy lives, the hedonism behind the scenes that we don’t see, and the changing face of the medium giving in to the demand for new and unique. Chazelle even bases a lot of his scenarios on classic Hollywood, even mustering up a small sub-plot involving a murdered prostitute at the hands of an obese movie star (a la Fatty Arbuckle).
If anything, Margot Robbie steals the show once again as Nellie LaRoy, an aspiring screen star who will do whatever it takes to become a star, and is overwhelmed when she achieves sudden fame. Brad Pitt is competent as Jack Conrad, a big screen star with a penchant for doomed romances. Diego Calva is good enough in his performance, but as the optimistic Manny Torres, he can never keep up with any of his fellow performers.
“Babylon” would be admirable if it weren’t so keen on submitting itself to its proclivity for decadence right down to the set design. It is just self-indulgent Oscar bait that revels in its deafeningly loud, obnoxious, unrelenting pace and fetish for excess.