Set from 1926 to 1932 with an epilogue set in 1952, the film follows a number of people living in the wild and excessive world of Hollywood that includes a brilliant yet decadent film star, a rising starlet, a jazz trumpeter, and a Mexican assistant who rises to become a studio executive from the world of silent films to the emergence of sound. It is a film that plays into the lives of various people as they would live a decadent lifestyle that offers so much while also being extremely passionate about their love for film and making films. At the center of this chaos and creativity is a Mexican immigrant in Manuel “Manny” Torres (Diego Calva) who works as an assistant for a studio executive who would befriend various people he meets as he would work his way into a prominent position in the world of film playing to the lives and fates of those he meets and cares for. Even as he has to watch up close and from afar in the lives of these people who would have trouble adjusting to a new world that would become more of an industry than its emphasis on art.
Damien Chazelle’s screenplay is largely straightforward as it opens with Manny trying to get an elephant up a hill for this party despite the fact that the elephant is ill while trying to maintain some control in the sense of decadence happening around him. It is there he meets a young wannabe starlet in Nellie LeRoy (Margot Robbie) who crashes the party as she would get a film role after the original starlet had overdosed on drugs while famed silent film star Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) arrives to the party where he would help Manny get jobs for Kinoscope Studios. Manny would also meet the African-American jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo), the famed gossip columnist Elinor St. John (Jean Smart), and the Chinese-American cabaret artist/title writer Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) as the would all play a role in Manny’s ascent yet the script does focus on Nellie’s own ascent as a silent film star despite her brash attitude and free-spirited personality. Upon his tenure working with Conrad, Manny would learn about Conrad’s ambitions to innovate and inspire yet is unprepared for the emergence of sound in films as Manny traveled to New York City to see The Jazz Singer as Kinoscope would also go into sound.
The film’s first act revolves around the time when Conrad is a top star and Nellie becoming this emerging star while they also take part in decadent parties with Nellie sleeping around with people including Lady Fay, who is known by people in their social circle as a lesbian, as the second act is about the emergence of sound with Nellie having difficulty adjusting to the new format. Even as a party where Nellie’s voice is mocked by a few people as it play into her decline as she would gain a reputation for being wild and engaging herself into drugs and gambling debts. Despite Manny’s ascent as a director and producer as he tries to get Nellie some work while making Sidney a film star with a jazz orchestra for Sidney. Manny is unable to help Nellie in her attempt to be part of Hollywood’s high society as the film’s third act plays into her fall as well as Conrad’s own fading film career as he is treated by MGM as their bailout star. It also play into the world where the film industry has changed with Manny being able to adapt but not everyone he knows are able to adapt in a world that has become more about money than creativity.
Chazelle’s direction is quite grand in its approach to capturing the period of silent films as it opens with the old Paramount Pictures logo from the 1920s as it then cuts into Manny waiting for a truck driver to carry an elephant up on a hill as it has this close-up shot of an elephant’s asshole shitting on a person. It is the first of a series of debauched moments that would arrive as once Manny and some people arrive at this mansion. There’s a young woman peeing on a fat man and all of this happens before 10 minutes while there are all of these tracking shots that showcases a party happening with orgies, dancing, drinking, and all sorts of debauchery including lots of cocaine snorting. All of this happens within 30 minutes of the film before the opening title credit appears as Chazelle allows the audience to be prepared for the amount of insanity they would endure for more than 3 hours. Yet, Chazelle maintains this sense of grandeur into the world that these characters live in with all of these wide shots into how a film was made such as Manny driving to town to wait for a camera arrive to rent after a bunch of cameras have been destroyed and then steal an ambulance to bring that camera before sunset.
That is intercut with Nellie doing her first movie and how natural she comes across to the point that she upstages the film’s main star to the point where she becomes the studio’s top gal as it’s presented with bawdy humor. Much of Chazelle’s direction plays up to the sense of excess that goes on in a Hollywood film production during the silent era while the sequence where Nellie makes her first sound film is among one of the most key moments in which Nellie has to be a certain position for her voice to be heard while everything around her goes wrong as she gets frustrated at the sound engineer while the assistant director absolutely goes on a fucking rant as if he is ready to kill someone. It is a key sequence that showcases everybody trying to adjust into this new form with an aftermath that shows that not everyone will be part of this new era in film as it would change into something far more commercial and less about art. Especially in the film’s third act where Manny would rise into a position of power as a director and studio executive yet uses his clout to ensure that Sidney becomes a star and Nellie remains on the studio’s payroll despite her issues with drugs and gambling. The film’s third act not only has this sense of everything being buttoned down where Chazelle’s close-ups and medium shots add to this element of claustrophobia in these characters who are trying to fit in to high society.
Yet, it also shows that they’ve become disconnected with who they are and hoping to return to that as the sequence where Elinor tries to show high society the new and improved Nellie to the likes of William Randolph Hearst (Pat Skipper) and Marion Davies (Chloe Fineman) while Sidney is the lone black person at the party as it is clear that neither of them fit in with these people and their shitty taste in food and drinks. The film’s climax doesn’t just play to Nellie hitting her bottom but also Manny’s devotion to her as it leads to him discovering a darker underworld in Hollywood that invites the likes of an eccentric gangster in James McKay (Tobey Maguire). It would be followed by this epilogue set in 1952 as it is about what Hollywood had become and what was lost but also the importance of film and the world that Manny was a part of. Overall, Chazelle crafts a tremendously grand and enthralling film about the lives of artists and individuals of the silent film world and their difficulty to adjust to a new world.
Cinematographer Linus Sandgren does phenomenal work with the film’s cinematography with its different array of film stock for the films that are made with black-and-white in those films but also luscious colors for the daytime exterior scenes along with some unique lighting for some of the interior scenes including some of its nighttime scenes as it is a highlight of the film. Editor Tom Cross does excellent work with the editing in maintaining a sense of manic energy while knowing when to slow things down as there’s some straight cuts and jump-cuts as it helps maintain this rollercoaster feel for the film. Production designer Florencia Martin, with set decorator Anthony Carlino and supervising art director Eric Sundahl, does amazing work with the art direction with the usage of the cars from the period as well as the interiors of the mansion in the film’s opening sequence as well as the studio sets both in a soundstage and outside of the studio as it is a highlight of the film.
Costume designer Mary Zophres does brilliant work with the film’s costumes from the red dress that Nellie wears in her first appearance as well as the array of period clothing at that time including the lavish dresses that women wore in those times as it is another highlight of the film. Special makeup effects artists Jason Collins, Thomas Floutz, and Tanner White, along with special makeup effects designer Arjen Tuiten, do terrific work with the look of the characters including some of the prop makeup used in films as well as the hairstyles of the time as it all play into this world of decadence. Special effects supervisor Elia P. Popov, along with visual effects supervisors Jay Cooper and John L. Weckworth, does fantastic work with the visual effects in the way special effects were presented during the silent film eras along with some visual set dressing to make Los Angeles look like the 1920s.
Sound designers Ai-Ling Lee and Tobias Poppe, along with sound editor Mildred Iatrou, do superb work with the sound as its mixing of sounds at the opening party sequence as well as the way sound is captured in the early days of film along with moments that help play into the atmosphere of a room or something heard from afar. The film’s music by Justin Hurwitz is incredible for its jazz-based score as it has these arrangements in the pianos, strings and brass including lots of trumpet solos and such while music supervisor Noah Hubbell help cultivate a soundtrack that includes some standards of the time along with a song sung by Lady Fay in My Girl’s Pussy that is shocking as it is a major highlight of the film.
The casting by Francine Maisler is marvelous as it features appearances and cameos from Kaia Gerber as a starlet at the first party that Lady Fay flirts with, Patrick Fugit as a police officer at the party, Taylor Hill as Conrad’s last wife, John Mariano as the masters of ceremonies at the opening party, Olivia Wilde as Conrad’s first wife who leaves him early in the film, Karolina Szymczak as another of Conrad’s wives who is a Hungarian opera singer, Jennifer Grant as high society lady Mildred Yates, Phoebe Tonkin as a young starlet in Jane Thornton who is first seen peeing on a man, Joe Dallesandro as a photographer, Albert Hammond Jr. as a man in a chicken line at the first party, J.C. Currais as a truck driver who is supposed to transport an elephant, Karina Fontes as a waitress Conrad flirts with at the first party, Vanessa Bednar as Nellie’s mother, and Spike Jonze as a tyrannical European filmmaker trying to make an epic period film starring Conrad.
Other noteworthy small roles include Alexandre Chen as the famed cinematographer James Wong Howe, Samara Weaving as the film starlet Constance Moore that is upstaged by Nellie, Chloe Fineman as actress Marion Davies, Sarah Ramos as high society member Harriet Rothschild, Pat Skipper as the famed businessman William Randolph Hearst, Eric Roberts as Nellie’s slimy father Robert Roy who would add to Nellie’s financial troubles, Ethan Suplee as McKay’s right-hand man Wilson who constantly spits, Jeff Garlin as the Kinoscope Studios boss Don Wallach, Flea as Wallach’s assistant Bob Levine who is often the middle man Wallach and everyone else as he respects Manny for his hard work, Rory Scovel as a drug dealer/aspiring actor known as the Count who often supplies drugs to actors on set, Max Minghella as MGM studio head Irving Thalberg, Olivia Hamilton as the filmmaker Ruth Adler who would direct many of Nellie’s films, P.J. Byrne as Adler’s assistant director Max, Katherine Waterston as Conrad’s stage actress fiancée who believes film is a low art, and Lukas Haas as Conrad’s best friend/producer George Munn who was the one that had championed Conrad despite his own troubles yet Conrad was always helpful towards him.
Tobey Maguire is great as the eccentric gangster James McKay who appears late in the film as someone that Nellie owes money to as he is this odd yet scary figure that is part of a dark underworld in Los Angeles as well as be the showman of a lifestyle that is way too dark. Jean Smart is brilliant as Elinor St. John as a gossip columnist whose writing helps or breaks people on the rise as she is someone that plays a role in Nellie’s ascent and descent yet has a loyalty to those whose career she helped create despite the role she has to play in the film industry. Li Jun Li is amazing as Lady Fay Zhu as this Chinese-American cabaret singer who is the embodiment of decadence while isn’t afraid to tell the world that she’s a lesbian until her work as a title designer becomes obsolete as she also deals with being ostracized because of her sexuality. Jovan Adepo is excellent as Sidney Palmer as this gifted jazz trumpeter who often plays at parties while also spouting insults towards his bandmates during the parties as he would later become an actor and performer for films in collaboration with Manny until he becomes alienated by high society and the studio’s ideas in making him more appealing to racist Southern audiences.
Brad Pitt is phenomenal as Jack Conrad as a man who is the embodiment of a movie star that can carry a picture and bring money but is also someone that is often involved in short-lived marriages and relationships except with those who has helped him in his career while he would lament over his declining film career in the era of sound films as well as loss and disillusionment. Diego Calva is incredible as Manuel “Manny” Torres as an assistant to Don Wallach who would work his way up the ranks in his love for film and filmmaking where he eventually becomes a filmmaker and a studio executive yet is also devoted to Nellie whom he is in love with despite her many troubles as he is someone that bonded with her early in their careers as he does whatever he can to help her. Finally, there’s Margot Robbie in a spectacular performance as Nellie LeRoy as a young woman who believes she is a star as she is this free spirit that is all about life while is also vulnerable considering her own troubled family life where Robbie displays a lot of charisma and tragedy into someone who couldn’t deal with the need to conform to high society as well as having to make changes in the world of sound films as it is truly a career-defining performance from Robbie.
Babylon is a tremendous film from Damien Chazelle that features sensational leading performances from Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt as well as a major discovery in Diego Calva. Along with ensemble cast, dazzling visuals, exhilarating music score and soundtrack, and its depiction of early 20th Century decadence at its most uncompromising. It is a film that doesn’t apologize for how over-the-top and how insane it is in showcasing a period in time where there were no rules with characters who are forced to play by the rules to survive only for those that refuses to become part of an industry where creativity is unimportant. In the end, Babylon is a magnificent film from Damien Chazelle.
Damien Chazelle Films: Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench – Whiplash (2014 film) - La La Land - First Man - (The Auteurs #76: Damien Chazelle)
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