The balls on Damien Chazelle. Think about it – somebody who is still relatively new in Hollywood (despite already winning the Best Director Oscar for La La Land (2017) making a three-hour epic that was sure to lose money (especially on a budget of $110 million) about his love for movies and his contempt for the industry producing them… I call it “balls” you can call it courage, but one thing is for certain. He doesn’t play it safe, and I appreciate it about him.

This film starts with one of the wildest parties you have ever witnessed on the film. There are drugs, naked people, a young woman peeing on an actor, an elephant… You don’t know what to focus on first. To an extent, the first hour of this movie reminded me of the energy of the opening 30 minutes of Moulin Rouge! (2001), one of my favourite films ever. Even though Babylon is much more explicit and not subtle about anything. It is during this party we are introduced to most of the key people we will follow. Although Babylon is that kind of a film with everyone and their mum in here, it is primarily about four people – Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jovan Adepo and Diego Calva and it is through their various pitfalls in this industry we see everything – the rise, the fall, the struggle, morals and those morals getting compromised, the switch to “talkies”… this movie wants to cover it all. And you are either here for all of it or you won’t have a good time with this movie.

The biggest thing I took after finishing this movie was that Damien Chazelle knows his movie/Hollywood history. And he is smart enough to separate the art he unabashedly loves from the deeply flawed artists who made it. Every scene in this movie makes a point every character matters because they are based on either one person who existed or several people mixed in one. And the bigger-than-life parties with no limits to the depravity are and have been known for this era. I appreciate someone like him because it would be easy to look back at the start of Hollywood, look at the revolutionary things they did with the cinema and fetishize the past because of your love for movies. But, as always, he is a realist who knows a thing or two about that history and feels like if he doesn’t show it “warts and all” (or, in this case, excessive parties and all), nobody else will.

It’s easy to watch the older movies from the 20s and 30s and, given how they are always dressed up and presentable, think people back then just used be much more noble. Quite the opposite, the rules and regulations are here because the previous generations did something that made those rules exist in the first place! Babylon realises that that nothing happens in vacuum. There is an action and reaction for everything, and we see it here when the sound starts to overtake or when Manny (Diego Calva’s character) takes all the beating, bossing around and starts making his way up.

It’s mainly through his and Margot Robbie’s characters we see how this industry can take two different dreamers, and when they go through “the system”, they both end up waking up to a nightmare. Despite being successful, he needs to compromise his morals, push others around (something that used to happen to him) and put out fires caused mainly by Nellie, played by Margot. Her character arc was also painful to watch because when we first met her, she had a spark that could power the entire Los Angeles. And in her last scene, she’s burned out and ready for her end despite still being young and pretty. It’s suitable that they form this almost a couple as they both have a similar enough theme where both are young dreamers willing to do what it takes, only to be put through the system and be lucky if they can escape it alive, and we watch both of their sparks die. Slowly, bit by bit, until there’s almost nothing left.

I am now realising that Brad Pitt and Jovan Adepo’s character arcs mirror each other too. Sure, Pitt’s character is the obvious remnant of the silent era that couldn’t hack it in the era of “talkies”, but thinking about it now, I think there’s a deeper theme with both of them, and that’s dignity. We see both being challenged and having their dignity taken away (Pitt’s phone call with a producer about making a “shit movie” and Jovan’s making his face extra black for the audience down South), and we see the aftermath too. One is tragic, and the other is tragic, but both can crush your soul for entirely different reasons.

Here is where the brilliance of Damien Chazelle shines through. Because those four characters are based on specific people of that era, sure. But you can argue we have seen stories like these throughout history, and we still see some now. How many people didn’t sacrifice their dignity or morals and quit the industry instead? How many killed themselves? How many peaked “too soon” and then struggled to do anything else? Babylon might be talking about the age of Hollywood that’s long gone; however, in its last 20 minutes, it shows us how everything is intertwined.

That final montage… Without spoiling anything, at first, it took me out a bit because I didn’t expect to watch what I did at first. But the longer it was going and when I put into perspective why we were watching and through which eyes (again, no spoilers), I loved it. If you have any doubts about the overarching theme of this film, this montage underlines everything for you and answers the most obvious question – why are you in this industry then? Why do you love movies when you know many horrible people made them? The answer is not easy, and I think it changes depending on who you ask, but I would answer that I love movies despite their flaws, not because of them. I imagine Chazelle would answer similarly because that is how I read this movie. He loves films and the medium, but that doesn’t mean you must love everything about it, and that includes the system that often profited from the misery and mistreatment of many, to the people involved within that system who committed horrible things. Also, the idea of being part of something bigger than yourself (another overarching message of this movie) connects that montage beautifully.

There are many more things I could write about, but the movie throws so much at you it’s impossible to catch and appreciate it all on the first watch. That is the only reason I can’t rate it 5/5* because I want to go back and make sure that I can orient myself in that enjoyable mess. Ultimately, that is what Babylon is – an unbelievably epic mess that reflects many complex ideas, themes and Hollywood history all at once. The more you know about the history and the people these characters are based on, the more you will… not necessarily enjoy the film, but maybe appreciate the effort. I certainly did, and I can’t wait to rewatch it, which is something I don’t tend to say for every three-hour film.

Overall, Babylon is a big, loud, extravagant history lesson that throws the kitchen sink, the fridge, the stove and the entire house at you. It is a film that knows what it wants to say and says it loudly. It’s also incredibly well-acted, directed, scored, shot… Look, it’s technically a brilliant movie. I believe that on my next rewatch, I will be in full “love” camp because I still think about this film, and it’s been a week or two since I watched it. I hope and wish Damien’s next project will be another fascinating topic again, and I can’t wait to see it.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke