Babylon

Directed by Damien Chazelle, Babylon follows several characters, including Brad Pitt’s Jack Conrad, Margot Robbie’s Nellie LaRoy, and Diego Calva’s Manny Torres, as their fortunes rise and fall during Hollywood’s transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Filmmaker Chazelle, armed with his own screenplay, kicks Babylon off with a decidedly underwhelming opening revolving around the preparations for and eventual execution of an exceedingly, excessively lavish party, with the seriously self-indulgent bent of this first act testing the viewer’s patience to an egregious degree and preventing the viewer from working up the slightest bit of interest in or sympathy for the characters’ larger-than-life exploits. It’s a relief, then, that the picture, beyond that point, segues into a hit-and-miss yet mostly engaging midsection that’s been suffused with several memorable and flat-out enthralling sequences, including a terrific interlude wherein a small crew attempts to work with sound for the very first time, although it’s equally clear that Babylon suffers from a bloated, rough-cut feel that prevents it from packing the visceral, exciting punch for which Chazelle is obviously striving (ie there are certain stretches here that seemingly serve little purpose other than to pad out the palpably overlong running time). By the time the predictably larger-than-life climax rolls around, Babylon has cemented its place as an undeniably ambitious endeavor that’s ultimately as breathtakingly entertaining as it is misguided and overwrought – with the uniformly engrossing performances and top-notch visuals generally ensuring that it remains, at the very least, watchable from start to finish.

*** out of ****