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From the outside, life in Hollywood may seem like a non-stop party—all glitz and glamour, fame and fortune. But writer/director Damien Chazelle’s historical epic, Babylon, offers a look at the ups and downs of Hollywood’s early days—and the challenges of life after the party’s over.
Babylon tells a story of Hollywood excess and movie stardom, following a number of characters through the ups and downs of their careers. Manny (Diego Calva) is working at a wildly decadent party hosted by a couple of famous Hollywood producers in 1926 when he meets Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a lovable party crasher with dreams of stardom. Nellie gets her big break that night, after a young starlet overindulges at the party—and when Manny comes to the aid of lovable leading man Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), he finds himself starting his own Hollywood career, too.
The film definitely starts off in a huge way—a glitzy party that presents every possible vice and fetish and obsession in a wild blur of music and costumes and whirling cameras. It’s sheer sensory overload—and it may make you rethink your decision to sit through three hours of a bunch of decadent Hollywood parties. And, admittedly, there are plenty of parties during this lengthy exploration of success and stardom. But there’s so much more here, too. The three main characters—and a couple of others—struggle to navigate the pressures and expectations, learning that fame and fortune may come overnight, but it can slip away just as quickly.
From parties to film sets to movie premieres, Babylon thrives on chaos. It’s music and movies and messes as Hollywood grows and thrives and changes—as stars come and go, as silent film is replaced by talking pictures, as the wild parties of the ‘20s move into the more subdued ‘30s. And no matter how messy things may get, Manny manages to fix it all…until he just can’t fix it anymore.
Don’t let the wild parties and general debauchery fool you; Babylon isn’t just a fun film of Hollywood decadence in the 1920s. It certainly has its entertaining moments—music and comedy and plenty of Hollywood scandal. But in all of the midst of it all, there’s a melancholy story about the price people are willing to pay to reach stardom—and the price they pay to try to keep it.
Babylon definitely isn’t a film for everyone. Its opening scenes alone will be more than some viewers can endure. But beneath the sheer decadence of the characters’ lives, there’s a fascinating story about celebrity and desperation in Hollywood.
You can steam Babylon on Netflix, beginning on December 23, 2022.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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