Babylon

Damien Chazelle writes and directs this tale of 1920’s and 30’s excess set in and around the early Hollywood movie industry. Jack Conrad (Brad’s Pitt) is a major studio offering guaranteed box office. This comes with perks, he’s the king of his domain, he is the party and when they party they party big. We find Jack at the most decadent of parties sex, drugs, naked bodies everywhere and of course an elephant. Here we meet Manny (Diego Calva) a gopher for the rich with dreams of making movies and Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) a “wild child” with dreams if starring in films. We follow their lives as they navigate a world of excess and a film industry that is in flux as “talkies” emerge and those that don’t fit find themselves callously dumped.

I’m a big fan of Damien Chazelle’s movie and TV work and here he takes a big swing at telling an epic story that runs just over 3 hours. I do admire big swings but sometimes, as with Babylon, they don’t quite catch it right and it falls short.

There are plenty of things to enjoy during its running time. Chazelle always uses music fabulously well and he does here and his direction often feels like a dance as we often find ourselves skilfully moving through busy complex scenes.

There’s plenty of performances to enjoy, Brad Pitt particularly as he takes us on Jack’s downward spiral. Margot Robbie’s Nellie the out of control young star who is equally popular and lonely, Robbie portrays this perfectly. Alongside them Jean Smart, Diego Calva and a cameo from Tobey Maguire all add to the tale.

However there is a lot going on and not all of it comes together, the narrative is sometimes a mess and sometimes self indulgent which leads to it 3 hours plus running time.

There’s no doubt Chazelle is steeped in film history and with this he wants to honour an important and pivotal part of it. But in wanting to tell such a big story it feels it often gets a little lost.

Babylon is an epic and wants to tell a big sweeping story. However it doesn’t fully succeed, as it tries to tell too much and indulge itself as much as the Hollywood of the time and that shows in its long running time. It’s likely to be divisive too much of a mess for some, but for others a 3 hour romp through movie history.