Babylon
“Babylon” begins with a Mexican immigrant named Manny (Diego Calva) trying to get an elephant up to a big Hollywood executive’s house for a wild bacchanalia orgy of music, drugs and sex. From there, he will find himself assisting stars, falling in love with an up-and-coming one, becoming an executive himself before the lifestyle gets the better of him. The ending is supposed to be a sweet, romantic ode to the world he lived in during that time in Hollywood, but it feels artificial, because writer-director Damien Chazelle called his shot earlier in the film’s three-hour running time, and it’s one other films- namely, one directly referenced here- have hit most poignantly. The party always comes to an end some time in Hollywood. What type of world we wake up to in the morning is based on the choices we make along the way.
Damien Chazelle appears to want to combine ideas from his three other films- the drive for greatness in “Whiplash,” the romantic pull of L.A. in “La La Land,” and the psychological focus towards doing something first in “First Man”- into a story about the Roaring Twenties in Hollywood, and how the industry changed- and swallowed up- its main characters. I love the ambition, but the execution is too messy. Chazelle writes great scenes, and directs great moments, but when your film begins with the chaos outlined in the first paragraph, and doesn’t really follow through with it for pretty much the rest of the film, and becomes something more wistful, it’s hard to know what to think of the whole, especially when it reaches a point for its main character that relies solely on another film’s emotional pull to drive its point home.
Manny has dreams of the romantic side of movies, of being on set and creating art. It’s something he shares with Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a silent matinee star- MGM’s biggest- who wants to convince people that movies matter as much as the stage, whether it’s one of his wives or a gossip columnist (Jean Smart) he’s known for years. When Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), who wants to be Hollywood’s “It girl,” crashes the party at the beginning, Manny is instantly in love, while Nellie enraptures herself in the lifestyle. She gets into the drugs, and dances the night away. When a young ingenue ODs, a producer (Flea) picks Nellie out to replace her. We will follow Manny, Conrad and Nellie for the rest of the film, as their careers rise, or fall, as Hollywood transitions from silent to sound, and the ’30s brings greater scrutiny to public figures.
The party at the beginning is what sets everything into motion. On the one hand, it goes on so long that the chaos becomes numbing. On the other hand, it’s also absolutely electric, at times. The crescendo of the ways in which things escalate is terrific, and it really gives us a sense of the madness to come…well, sort of. It basically acts as the wedding scene at the beginning of “The Godfather,” introducing the characters we’ll follow the rest of the film while also starting specific threads to be fleshed out later. The problem is the energy of the scene is incapable of being matched throughout the remainder of the film, and the most interesting character arc is hiding in plain sight.
Music has been a fundamental part of all of Chazelle’s films, and that is true of “Babylon,” as well. Justin Hurwitz’s score is jazzy and adrenaline-fueled, but there are few moments where I felt it truly landed an emotional impact in the movie. That’s not the case with music in general, though. Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) is a jazz trumpet player leading the bands throughout the film- starting with that opening party. We see him playing music for films as well as other massive gatherings during the movie. One day, Manny- who’s an assistant for Conrad at the time- is watching them film a musical rendition of the song, “Singin’ in the Rain,” which Jack is involved with after the transition to sound starts to happen. Sidney is one of the musicians playing, and during a break, he gives Manny an idea. Manny’s ascent accelerates, and Sidney is one of the biggest names in the business until Manny makes another creative choice, alienating him from Sidney. The scene where Sidney is confronted with that choice has the best acting of the entire film, and marks a line in the sand for him. Adepo isn’t given a lot to do in the film, but his role in this film is the most defining of the ways in which Hollywood can prop someone up but doesn’t care how they are treated. It’s a great performance.
Overall, I think Calva, Robbie and Pitt do very good work in the roles they are given, and each of them have moments that- for Robbie and Pitt- rank up there with some of their best work. But the film not only stretches the narrative out needlessly, but for every great moment, it feels like there are several that fell flat. The constant marriages for Conrad. The scene where snake fighting occurs. A party scene where everyone shows up goes nowhere. And then, near the end, a scene with Tobey Maguire that feels like the Alfred Molina scene in “Boogie Nights” before transitioning to a sequence that feels like something out of a QAnon conspiracy theory ratchets up the tension, but is absurdly long. Could some of this material not been streamlined? I love Conrad’s scenes with Smart’s Elinor St. John near the end. And Calva trying to make it early in his career, especially when he has to get the shoot a new camera. And the moment when Nellie becomes a star is beautifully directed, as is the moment when they are trying to make a sound scene work for the first time. And pretty much any scene with Li Jun Li as Lady Fay Zhu, a performer whose attributes are not appreciated in Hollywood. There’s so much I really like in this film; unfortunately, it doesn’t result in a film I love.
Once again, I have to talk about the ending. I’m fine with what it does in principle, but in execution, this is a rough sit. I get what it’s going for, and I think it could have worked. Unfortunately, Chazelle overstuffed it to hammer home point home in a way in which I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. I cannot fault him for wanting to make a film about the excessive nature of Hollywood, which the opening certainly points towards, but starting from that opening, and getting to an ending that is one of the most overindulgent in recent memory, while also trying to be quiet and introspective, shows that, maybe, Chazelle was in the deep end trying to make this film.
