'Babylon': An Exhilarating, Indulgent Trip Through Movie History (Review)

Movies about the magic of movies are made every year, and Damien Chazelle has already made one himself with La La Land. But his new monstrous epic, Babylon, pushes that to an even further extreme, going around in a circle to become a movie about the magic of movies about our love of the medium. It is audacious, showing off the absurdity of making movies. Babylon can wear a little thin on those short of patience as Chazelle wraps up his story threads. However, the performances, Chazelle's meticulous directing, and Tom Cross' snappy editing make it a thrill if you love movies as much as the director does.

Babylon primarily focuses on three characters living in Hollywood during a perilous time for the industry. Talkies are around the corner, the Great Depression is about to hit, and tastes are changing across the country. It is in this environment that Manny Torres (Diego Calva) makes his way into Hollywood. During the epic opening orgy party, Manny meets aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie). Their destinies become tied together as they both rise in the industry, Nellie as a flapper silent movie star and Manny as an executive. 

Another person at the opening party is Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), whom we meet at the top of the Hollywood heap. He's the highest-paid actor at MGM and a true star. Jack is a heavy drinker, a wild partier, and a man who goes through more wives than months in a year. It will all catch up to him though. It's not necessarily because of his voice, but because his time has just come and gone. 

That's one of the many major themes running throughout Babylon. Time marches on. It never stops. Movie actors' fame may wane, even if their talent never leaves them. In one of the best scenes of Babylon, gossip columnist Elinor St. John (Jean Smart) tells Jack that he will still survive. There will be people born decades after he dies who will discover his movies and fall in love with him. That's the magic of movies. The speech feels written directly for the classic movie fans in the audience who were born years after their favorite stars were long gone. Only one problem with this: it doesn't make Jack feel any better now. It means he can't redefine the form in 1932 as he dreams. This is a strange hypocrisy because he doesn't want to stop the medium from progressing, but it can only do so if silent movie stars like him are left behind.

Babylon is also about the myths Hollywood tells of itself. The allure of making your dreams come true always comes at a cost. Manny decides that there is no line he won't cross to succeed, while Nellie pushes herself to the brink. There are characters who will not go all the way for Hollywood, and they're the ones who have the best lives post-fame, even if it means they will not be remembered forever in the ways Nellie or Jack will be. 

Chazelle also brings out a surprising sense of humor in Babylon. After the super-serious First Man, he has an explosion of hilarious moments, many of them pushing ideas in Singin' in the Rain to a new level. If Gene Kelly could swear onscreen in 1952, he might have done the same as Margot Robbie does in an incredible scene where Nellie has to learn how to act with a microphone hanging over her head. Like many of the great long scenes in Babylon, it tests your patience at first, but Cross' editing is so rhythmic that you buy into it. They build up to incredible crescendos with unforgettable punchlines that cut right into the next scene while you're still laughing at the jokes. 

As with all of Chazelle's past films, Babylon has an incredible score. Justin Hurwitz's work is excellent, taking notes from silent film scores and weaving in classics. It helps that Chazelle just can't help himself to include a story about a musician. Jovan Adepo (Watchmen) is an unsung hero here as Sidney Palmer, a jazz trumpeter. Palmer is one of several supporting characters who weave in and out of Babylon, with their stories acting as commentaries to the lives of Jack, Mellie, and Manny. 

The best casting decision in Babylon is choosing Calva. While he has a handful of credits, including Netflix's Narcos: Mexico, Calva's status as a relative unknown makes him the best candidate for a character guiding the audience through this trip. While characters around him struggle to adapt to changes, Manny continues to evolve, not because it is easy, but because he wants to see as much of Hollywood's magic as we do. His scenes with Robbie, who is giving the best performance of her career, are pure magic.

There is so much to say about Babylon, a wild ride that may take multiple viewing to truly take in every aspect of it. Making movies is an absurd profession, ever-evolving in unexpected ways. Yet, it is still a medium that never truly dies. Nothing lasts forever, but silent movies do. The talkies do. The emotions, the tears, the romance, and the feelings do. Babylon reminds us that it is never easy, and the sacrifices may be insane, but the result can be marvelous.