- Title: Babylon
- IMDb: link
Babylon is a hot mess. Writer/director Damien Chazelle‘s look at the excess and self-indulgence of 1920s Hollywood at the end of the silent film era is itself a bloated, self-indulgent, clusterfuck of a film that weaves through the lives of troubled star Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), newly discovered Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), and behind-the-scenes up-and-comer Manny Torres (Diego Calva).
Bolstered by a litany of supporting characters and events (most notably the lavish party that opens the film), the film boasts some strong scenes and individual moments over its exhaustive, more than three-hour, running time before ultimately limping to the finish line struggling to make some kind of point to justify its bright and colorful, but ultimately empty, journey. Babylon is a movie of moments which can be viewed best by keeping your fast-forward button handy.
Fans of Margot Robbie will enjoy her here, as she’s easily one of the best things about the film (particularly in her early silent film sequences). However, just like every other aspect of the film, her erratic character and performance swan dive into the hot mess that is the film’s script ultimately leaving us with a message of how Hollywood screws up a group of increasingly unlikeable people.
Babylon is readily available on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and on several different streaming services. However, being readily available doesn’t mean it’s good. Whether the overstuffed turkey of a film is worthy your time, however, is another question altogether.
Watch the trailer
