Babylon Is Full Of Spectacle, Over The Top, And It’s Great {Review}

Babylon is Damien Chazelle’s look at old Hollywood and the joy of spending time in it. A three-hour joyride through moviemaking in the 1920s as we switched from the silent era to the talkies features some of the most over-the-top scenes of decadence this year and some of our best performances. Margot Robbie has never been better, Brad Pitt has never been more self-aware, and Diego Calva is a star in the making. While it may be a smidge too long, the time flies by, and you are left wondering what you just watched and how anything else released in 2022 can top it.

Babylon Is The Best Film Of 2022

Babylon follows the story of several people navigating Hollywood in the 1920s- dashing silent hero Jack Conrad (Pitt), newly minted starlet Nellie LaRoy (Robbie), and Manny Torres (Calva), who is looking for any opportunity to break into showbiz. All three are living the life, making films, and on top of the world when everything comes to a screeching halt when the first talking picture is released. As their world changes, they all struggle to adapt and become relics of a past Hollywood was too eager to move on from.

The excess of Babylon has been much-publicized, and everything you have read is true and then some. There is no holding back in the decadence depicted on screen, from sex and violence to copious drug use. Chazelle loads us up with glitz and glamour but doesn’t lose the quiet moments he has become known for. His script is full of life and some of the most depressingly great themes that we have seen this year. Two scenes stick out that highlight his power as both a director and writer. The scene where Robbie has to film her first talking scene on film is one of the best film sequences in years and full of so much tension, more than any horror film this year. As a writer, he can take a bow for the conversation between Pitt’s Conrad and gossip writer Elinor St. John (a superb Jean Smart), where he both crushes Pitt’s character in the film and the real-life actor while simultaneously giving hope to every actor or actress feeling there star fading.

Babylon has great performances coming from all angles. Li Jun Li is fantastic as a cabaret singer. Smart’s gossip columnist steals the film in some ways. Jovan Adepo is heartbreaking and a revelation as jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer. Other memorable parts from Samara Weaving, Flea, P.J. Byrne, and Eric Roberts add to the wonderful ensemble. The biggest standouts from the cast, though are the leads, as well as Olivia Hamilton as a studio director. The chemistry she has with Robbie as she realizes what a diamond in the rough she is and the struggle of making a talking picture in the above-mentioned scene make her stand out in a sea of great performances.

But this is Robbie’s movie, hands down. She is always electrifying, giving herself over to the material thoroughly. It is her best role yet, which should warrant serious award consideration. Same for Pitt, who had to have read the script and felt attacked and wounded, then did the movie anyway as a form of therapy. Calva is the perfect opposite for Robbie, and the two really play off each other well.

Chazelle had a lot of goodwill going into this film after Whiplash, La La Land, and First Man, but this might be better than all of them. The ending is incredibly moving and is him speaking to the film fan in all of us. You never want to leave the world of Babylon, but as the characters in Chazelle’s film find out, everything eventually comes to an end.

Babylon

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Review by Jeremy Konrad

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9.5/10

Babylon is the best film of 2022, a decadent, thrilling, and emotional journey through old Hollywood that you never want to end.