YNOT at the Movies

Ferociously fast, loud, and dazzling, the writer-director Damien Chazelle's overstuffed "Babylon" (USA 2022 | 189 min.) gives an ambitious, extravagant, farcical, and super long lecture on film history from the '20 to the '30s in Hollywood. The film makes a labored attempt to reference historical figures in the film industry through a handful of characters, yet after spending more than three hours with them, hardly any of them will stay with you. Whether you can learn some film history after watching this film is completely up in the air.

The film opens in 1926 in Ben Air when Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a Mexican trying to break into the movie business, delivers an elephant to the mansion of Don Wallach (Jeff Garlin) where the all-night-long exorbitant dance party takes place. At first, Manny gets a culture shock seeing the sex and drug scenes at the party, but he is a quick learner and finds his way around in no time. When the uninvited star-wanna-be Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) fails to crash the party, Manny becomes her savior and gets her into the party, because he falls for her on the first sight.

The reason Nellie desperately wants to be in the party is because this is where the Hollywood celebrities hang out. Among them are the hottest silent film star Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) who comes to soak his liver with alcohol, and Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) who attracts the spotlight with a song called "My Girl's Pussy." The chaotic and outlandish party is keenly observed by the gossip columnist Elinor St. John (Jean Smart) and is energized by the jazz music from a group of black musicians led by Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo).

When the sun comes up, they disperse back to their movie sets to make silent films. However, both Manny and Nellie accomplish their goals after a crazy night. Manny becomes an assistant to Jack and Nellie gets a part in a movie directed by a no-bullshit director Ruth Adler (Olivia Hamilton).

As the movie industry evolves beyond silent films, Jack's silent film star power begins to fade. While everyone is struggling with the new technology, the advances also provide new opportunities for many. Manny steps up to become an executive in a film production studio, and Nellie emerges as a famous movie star sinking deeper into a self-destructing lifestyle. When Nellie can no longer pay back her debt to a sadistic underground gambling establishment owner James McKay (Tobey Maguire), things get out of hand. Will Manny's love for Nellie be able to save their Hollywood dreams?

Unless you have studied film history in college, you probably won't be able to figure out which historic figures are referenced to by these characters in the film. Like a professor who is determined to fail students in the class, the writer-director Damien Chazelle throws the entire syllabus into the air at once from the podium, and we see all the pages flying around but hardly get what's written on them. There is way too much material in the film and the storytelling is as chaotic as those movie sets portrayed in the film.

The film's pace is often as fast as how the camera moves to make you dizzy, the movie unnecessarily lasts more than three hours. There are quite a few moments that should have been cut but they were kept to create comical effects. Do we really need to watch Nellie's multiple takes for a scene in order to get the joke? It's also tiring during the long-running time when the plot is as predictable as anyone can imagine.

If you want to learn film history of the '20s and the '30s, you should go to the library to study. Not only will it be quieter than this film, you might actually learn something. The only sigh of relief is that there is no exam after this long, boring, and noisy lecture.

"Babylon" opens on Friday, December 23, 2022.