Film Review: Babylon (2022) dir. Damien Chazelle

Chazelle's Hollywood follow-up to 2016's notorious Best Picture loser La La Land is bold, vivacious, and very, very dirty.

As someone who truly enjoyed this film's predecessor, Babylon was one of my most anticipated films of 2022. Damien Chazelle's work on La La Land was (and still is) impressive though, in retrospect, it has received criticism for its predictable and unoriginal plot. Babylon takes everything that was done right with La La Land and cranks it up to a thousand. Where the music was light and soft, it is now loud and boisterous; where the colours were bright and flashy, they are now muddy and messy; and where the sets were grand, they are somehow even more grand. Both sonically and visually, this film has a lot to offer and, at times, it can be too much to take in. However, with an open mind and willingness to enjoy the ride, there is quite an interesting story to be found within the chaos.

Set in LA in the 1920s, Babylon follows Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a Mexican immigrant who dreams of getting behind-the-scenes on a film set, and Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), an aspiring silent film star who has had a rough start to life. The two meet early on and eventually fall into the swirling mess of Hollywood as Manny stumbles into an executive position and Nellie quickly becomes the new "it girl". In addition to surviving the excess of Hollywood, the two must navigate a quickly changing landscape as the industry quickly moves on from silent films in favour of "talkies". There are two wonderful scenes in the film, both shot in the same ways though they take place at different times that really emphasize how film sets changed as a result of this. The first shows us the chaos of silent film sets, as the camera pans across a vast field where dozens of different films are all filming at exactly the same time, rushing to get every shot needed before the sun goes down. The second occurs during Nellie's first time filming a talkie though this time, the oppressive silence required in the studio is even more deafening than the mess before. There is a common thread that binds these two scenes together though, and that is despite the vastly different filming styles and ever-changing demands, everyone is still just trying to produce a piece of art they are proud of. The decision to have the film set during this period of transition is one of my favourite aspects of Babylon. Manny and Nellie, along with other big names Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) and Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li), struggle to find their place as stars in this new era of Hollywood. In a way, it helps to change the way we look at celebrities; they too are simply trying to do a job they love. However, their job entails constantly adapting to the changing demands of an industry that will chew up and spit out anyone who is no longer of any use to it. And to lose a job, as we all know, can be completely life-shattering.

Babylon is perhaps one of the most ambitious films I have seen in quite a while. It truly has everything (yes, everything). That includes cocaine, orgies, murder, suicide, urine, elephant feces, broken dreams, mobs, more cocaine, and a lesbian cabaret number. The film becomes even more wild as it divulges into the depths of Hollywood, where the same excess is lurking, though in a more depraved and horrific manner. Tobey Maguire has a brief stint as James McKay, a mob boss who has his own sick ideas for what Hollywood should produce. Warning: this scene does include one of the most disturbing (though brief) shots I have ever seen in a major blockbuster film. This scene is one of many that mark almost complete tonal shifts throughout the film. This is where things can get a bit lost, as viewers might find it difficult to maintain an open mind in the face of so many different styles and objectively offensive elements. However, I think this works in the film's benefit as it further emphasizes the central theme of chaos. Without spoiling any of the end, I will say that the film ends with an absolutely insane montage that includes scenes from the film itself, as well as iconic scenes in Hollywoods' history, that begins to unravel and break down into digitalized sounds and pixelated colours, reminding us that we are all just perceiving a series of moving images and sounds created to entertain us, and of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making it.

What allows a film such as this to exist without being overshadowed by its own ridiculousness are the performances. Diego Calva is a fantastic lead and his casting is truly brilliant as he is largely unrecognizable as a film star to Hollywood. Margot Robbie is absolutely flawless as always, as she relentlessly throws herself into her wild and care-free character. She is able to bring out a humanity in Nellie and, in the fashion of an excellent silent film star, shows us her damaged past through merely her eyes. Thought these two are certainly the films focus and rightfully so, Brad Pitt does deserve acknowledgement for an amazing supporting performance as a fading star of Old Hollywood that feels all too real. He brings a calm melancholy to his character that represents the helplessness of his career and life. It shows us how it isn't always the dreams of new up-and-comers that are squashed, and that even legend can fall victim to irrelevance.

Despite what you may think of the movie, there is credit to be given to Chazelle for creating a film that is so robustly unapologetic and lavish. In think much of Babylon came out of a need to counter the criticisms of La La Land, in that this film is by no means the typical "feel-good" movie about making it in Hollywood. I appreciate this new take for what it is: a totally unhinged meta-analysis of all the beauty and madness that go into film-making. Where La La Land was a tribute to "the fools who dream", Babylon is for the discarded ones who couldn't survive the beast that is Hollywood.