First Take: Babylon - old Hollywood gets the Chazelle treatment

SYNOPSIS: A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

He’s told stories of men going to the moon, an unlikely musical romance, and tales of drummers rushing and dragging. But after a few years working in TV, Damien Chazelle is back with another love letter to cinema - but this time it ain’t just another day of sun. He’s gone back to the start of the industry in the late 20s, and he does not hold back at all, earning the ultimate mark for a movie here in England: the 18 certificate.

Once again, Chazelle writes and directs the film, and while the script is a bit all over the shop (partly due to the small matter of filming major setpieces like the film’s opening as Covid restrictions started to ease), the sheer scale of this plot is insane - an hotly sought after actor struggling to make the most of sound being introduced, a new star trying to make a name for herself, a musician who will do anything to work in Hollywood, and a film assistant who wants to ascend the ranks all have linked narratives, but separate stories, explaining the length of the film: 3 hours 9 minutes. While it doesn’t drag, some elements could have been cut down considerably, arguably the same issues which plagued Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (another film which covers Hollywood in this light). But aside from Chazelle, technically this film is glorious - Linus Sandgren shoots this thing so well, on old school film as well, and Justin Hurwitz turns in another fantastic (Golden Globe winning) score as he always seems to do for his film school classmate/longtime collaborator.

On to the reason why this film excels - the cast. And it is one hell of an ensemble. Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt lead this company incredibly well, with a supporting cast that includes Diego Calva (one of the standout talents due to his work as Manny), Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, and Li Jun Li rounding out the group of characters we follow from the late 1920s up to the introduction of sound in the early 1930s. If you know your film, and especially if you’ve covered the birth of Hollywood at either A-level or undergraduate studies, you’ll get a lot out of Babylon. But for casual audiences, this is a very difficult film to sell - the dire US box office numbers sadly reflect this, and especially opening weeks after Avatar. Ultimately, this is one that the students are going to have an absolute field day with in years to come.

THE VERDICT

Outrageous at times, ambitious in scale, packed with some top tier performances across the board, and ultimately a look into the darker world of Hollywood’s golden age, this is a film ultimately Chazelle was born to make - even if its runtime is a bit self indulgent.

RATING: 4/5