{"id":163330,"date":"2022-12-20T15:51:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T15:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/babylon-is-a-lavish-yet-unfocused-valentine-to-hollywoods-heyday\/"},"modified":"2022-12-20T15:51:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T15:51:09","slug":"babylon-is-a-lavish-yet-unfocused-valentine-to-hollywoods-heyday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/babylon-is-a-lavish-yet-unfocused-valentine-to-hollywoods-heyday\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Babylon&#8217; is a lavish yet unfocused valentine to Hollywood&#8217;s heyday"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"wpds-c-grBDNq hide-for-print mb-sm undefined\">\n<div class=\"PJLV PJLV-iAjpuP-css flex items-center\" config=\"[object Object]\" data-qa=\"article-actions\">\n<div class=\"wpds-c-fLphcs\">\n<div class=\"wpds-c-jmLDag wpds-c-jmLDag-bywHgD-variant-primary wpds-c-jmLDag-biynoz-density-compact wpds-c-jmLDag-hZSyid-isOutline-true wpds-c-jmLDag-ejCoEP-icon-left wpds-c-jmLDag-futxca-cv wpds-c-jmLDag-iknmtxO-css\"><button aria-label=\"Comment\" class=\"PJLV PJLV-iPnDcc-css\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" fill=\"currentColor\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" role=\"img\" class=\"wpds-c-kKAfCG wpds-c-efqEZa focus-highlight flex items-center justify-center brad-lg pointer transition-400 ease-in-out transition-colors\" aria-label=\"Comment on this story\"><title>Comment on this story<\/title><path d=\"M14 14V2H2v9.47h8.18L12.43 13ZM3 10.52V3h10v9.23l-2.5-1.66Z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p>Comment<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"teaser-content grid-center\">\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"mb-md flex items-center\" data-qa=\"restaurant-stars\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"content-box\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" data-testid=\"star\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" role=\"img\"><title>StarSolid<\/title><path d=\"M6.06 5.34L7.52.84a.5.5 0 01.96 0l1.46 4.5h4.73a.5.5 0 01.3.9l-3.84 2.78 1.47 4.5a.5.5 0 01-.77.56L8 11.3l-3.83 2.78a.5.5 0 01-.77-.56l1.47-4.5-3.83-2.78a.5.5 0 01.3-.9h4.72z\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\"\/><\/svg><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"content-box\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" data-qa=\"half-star\" data-testid=\"half-star\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" role=\"img\"><title>StarHalf<\/title><path d=\"M8.48.84l1.46 4.5h4.73a.5.5 0 01.3.9l-3.84 2.78 1.47 4.5a.5.5 0 01-.77.56L8 11.3l-3.83 2.78a.5.5 0 01-.77-.56l1.47-4.5-3.83-2.78a.5.5 0 01.3-.9h4.72L7.52.84a.5.5 0 01.96 0zM8 3.13V9.9l2.88 2.1-1.1-3.4 2.89-2.1H9.1L8 3.14z\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\"\/><\/svg><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"content-box\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" data-qa=\"star-outline\" data-testid=\"star-outline\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" role=\"img\"><title>StarOutline<\/title><path d=\"M6.06 5.34L7.52.84a.5.5 0 01.96 0l1.46 4.5h4.73a.5.5 0 01.3.9l-3.84 2.78 1.47 4.5a.5.5 0 01-.77.56L8 11.3l-3.83 2.78a.5.5 0 01-.77-.56l1.47-4.5-3.83-2.78a.5.5 0 01.3-.9h4.72zm.73 1H2.87l3.17 2.3-1.2 3.72L8 10.06l3.17 2.3-1.21-3.72 3.17-2.3H9.2L8 2.6 6.79 6.34z\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\"\/><\/svg><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"content-box\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" data-qa=\"star-outline\" data-testid=\"star-outline\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" role=\"img\"><title>StarOutline<\/title><path d=\"M6.06 5.34L7.52.84a.5.5 0 01.96 0l1.46 4.5h4.73a.5.5 0 01.3.9l-3.84 2.78 1.47 4.5a.5.5 0 01-.77.56L8 11.3l-3.83 2.78a.5.5 0 01-.77-.56l1.47-4.5-3.83-2.78a.5.5 0 01.3-.9h4.72zm.73 1H2.87l3.17 2.3-1.2 3.72L8 10.06l3.17 2.3-1.21-3.72 3.17-2.3H9.2L8 2.6 6.79 6.34z\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"font-xs font--article-body bold ml-xxs\">(<!-- -->1.5 stars<!-- -->)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">Say this much for Damien Chazelle: He shows his audience exactly what he&#8217;s giving them within the first few minutes of \u201cBabylon,\u201d his bruised, black-eyed valentine to Hollywood&#8217;s sybaritic heyday.  In a whopper of an opening number, Chazelle films the delivery of an elephant to the estate of film producer Don Wallach (Jeff Garlin), a bravura scene of extravagance and excess that ends with not a few bit players covered in pachyderm waste \u2014 recalling the famous joke about the guy who cleans up after the circus every day.  Asked why he doesn&#8217;t quit, he replies with incredulity: \u201cWhat, and leave show business?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">That&#8217;s the animating question of \u201cBabylon,\u201d Chazelle&#8217;s lavish, febrile, ultimately ambiguous portrait of American cinema before the moralizing censors and Wall Street moguls got their mitts on a once-glorious tribe of outlaws, reprobates, perverts and pirates.  The louche, lusty pioneers of Chazelle&#8217;s admiring imagination made movies on the fly, not to send a message but to see how far they could push a medium still in its infancy.  Raffish, ungovernable and not a little unhinged, the early settlers of 1920s Hollywoodland were, by Chazelle&#8217;s reckoning, a motley crew of wackos and visionaries, prone to self-destruction but also to soaring flights of inspiration and ecstasy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">At least, I <i>think<\/i> that&#8217;s &#8220;Babylon&#8217;s&#8221; point?  Quite honestly, by the time this muddled, overcrowded, tiresomely digressive trip finally crashes like so many post-binge hangovers, Chazelle&#8217;s point has gotten lost in a self-indulgent, manically erratic shuffle.  Once the elephant is delivered, it becomes the centerpiece of a raging party of unfettered drinking, drugging, sex and a near-death.  A fetish-y scene of an overweight man and his young date recalls the scandalous life and career of Fatty Arbuckle;  the pencil-mustached Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt, in a silky, endearingly sensitive turn) is clearly meant to evoke John Garfield;  and Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), the cocaine-addled ingenue who&#8217;s plucked from obscurity to become a star, seems to be based on Mabel Normand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">Cinema nerds will find plenty of similar parlor-game diversions in \u201cBabylon&#8217;s\u201d characters and their real-life analogues.  (Is the director Nellie works with based on Dorothy Arzner? Anita Loos? Alice Guy-Blach\u00e9? Discuss!) But for those not keeping score at home, Chazelle keeps what passes for a narrative cracking along at a breakneck but baggily unstructured speed.  While Nellie pursues fame and fortune, Manny Torres, a young man she befriends at Wallach&#8217;s party, gets his own chance to leave elephant detail.  Played by newcomer Diego Calva in a performance reminiscent of a youthful Javier Bardem, Manny is the ethical center of a film that whirls, gyre-like, into the outr\u00e9 reaches of depravity and dissolution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p><span class=\"font--article-body font-copy hide-for-print ma-0 pb-md db italic interstitial\">Here are the movies everyone will be talking about this holiday season<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">Part burlesque, part grotesque, \u201cBabylon\u201d takes its pacey cues and shock effects from earlier, much better films: Chazelle doesn&#8217;t tell a story so much as string together sequences that alternately quote \u201cGoodfellas\u201d and \u201cBoogie Nights,\u201d without being nearly as horrifyingly elegant or cringe-inducingly pleasurable as either.  Like \u201cSingin&#8217; in the Rain,\u201d which the filmmaker will quote literally in a climax that&#8217;s meant to be a moving testament to film&#8217;s endurance as an art form, \u201cBabylon\u201d takes place at the cusp of the sound era, when the license and licentiousness of the silents gave way to the rationalized \u2014 and fatally sanitized \u2014 production practices of the talkies.  Manny&#8217;s big break comes when he rushes from a remote movie location to Los Angeles to replace a camera;  he gets back just before the director is about to lose the light, thereby inadvertently discovering magic hour.  In a welcome quiet moment, a Louella-or-is-it-Hedda-like reporter played by Jean Smart schools Jack in the ways of graceful aging in a touching speech about obsolescence and eternity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">Such are the romantic touches that give \u201cBabylon\u201d moments of lyrical lift.  Elsewhere, it exists in a revisionist dream space in which anarchy and art go hand in hand, even as the body count piles up and up.  Robbie plays Nellie as a creature of insatiable appetites \u2014 for fame but most especially cocaine \u2014 whose jittery, tight-jawed energy fuels the entire cockeyed caravan.  Lewd, lascivious, libidinous, Nellie is the heroine of a picture that begins to feel hectoring in its admiration for her most outrageous antics (the difference between madcap and mayhem lies only in a few random letters, after all).  Let&#8217;s put it this way: If you must see one movie this year featuring projectile vomiting as an indictment of the upper classes, make it \u201cTriangle of Sadness.\u201d  Conversely, if you must see one movie this year featuring a pointless and seemingly endless snake-fight scene, \u201cBabylon\u201d is your best bet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">Although Jack, Nellie and Manny are the main protagonists in \u201cBabylon,\u201d Chazelle introduces a third: jazz musician Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo), whose travails as an African American in a mostly White medium come to an offensively absurdist head when he&#8217;s asked to perform in blackface.  Although he&#8217;s a welcome addition to the proceedings, Sydney&#8217;s storyline gets lost in Chazelle&#8217;s frantic intercutting, which becomes a case of diminishing returns as \u201cBabylon\u201d reaches its panicky denouement: a scene featuring a ghoulish Tobey Maguire, in which he seems to be channeling \u201c Boogie Nights\u201d-era Alfred Molina by way of \u201cNightmare Alley.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">By this point, the pleasure seekers decadently partying their way through \u201cBabylon\u201d have looked to pain for their biggest turn-on.  The breathless energy begins to feel exponentially more forced (and, frankly, unpleasant) the harder Chazelle works to sustain it.  Robbie delivers a fearless portrayal of a woman trying to outrun the forces seeking to domesticate her, but she&#8217;s abandoned by a story that amounts to little more than a mash-up of moments that, for all their high aesthetic and production value, feel shallow and not terribly original.  Even \u201cBabylon&#8217;s\u201d final moments \u2014 intended to be Chazelle&#8217;s crowning paean to cinema at its most expressive and transporting \u2014 can&#8217;t bring the hazy stuff-for-stuff&#8217;s-sake into focus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\">Like so many recent films \u2014 \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood,\u201d \u201cBelfast,\u201d \u201cThe Fabelmans,\u201d \u201cEmpire of Light\u201d \u2014 \u201cBabylon\u201d wants to share tribute to the medium that brings us all together in the dark.  But it also doesn&#8217;t miss an opportunity to alienate the audience at every turn.  Which, in a backhanded way, might make it an accidentally honest portrayal of a medium that has always wanted to have its coke and snort it, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body\" data-qa=\"article-body\">\n<p data-qa=\"drop-cap-letter\" data-el=\"text\" class=\"wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css font-copy\"><b>r.<\/b> At area theaters.  Contains strong and crude sexual material, graphic nudity, bloody violence, drug use and pervasive coarse language.  188 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"dn-ns hide-for-print\" data-testid=\"mostRead\" subscriptions-section=\"content\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comment on this story Comment StarSolidStarHalfStarOutlineStarOutline(1.5 stars) Say this much for Damien Chazelle: He shows his audience exactly what he&#8217;s giving them within the first few minutes of \u201cBabylon,\u201d his bruised, black-eyed valentine to Hollywood&#8217;s sybaritic heyday. In a whopper of an opening number, Chazelle films the delivery of an elephant to the estate of &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/babylon-is-a-lavish-yet-unfocused-valentine-to-hollywoods-heyday\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;Babylon&#8217; is a lavish yet unfocused valentine to Hollywood&#8217;s heyday<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Babylon&#039; is a lavish yet unfocused valentine to Hollywood&#039;s heyday - harchi90<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMiRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9tb3ZpZXMvMjAyMi8xMi8yMC9iYWJ5bG9uLW1vdmllLXJldmlldy_SAQA?oc=5\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Babylon&#039; is a lavish yet unfocused valentine to Hollywood&#039;s heyday - harchi90\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Comment on this story Comment StarSolidStarHalfStarOutlineStarOutline(1.5 stars) Say this much for Damien Chazelle: He shows his audience exactly what he&#8217;s giving them within the first few minutes of \u201cBabylon,\u201d his bruised, black-eyed valentine to Hollywood&#8217;s sybaritic heyday. In a whopper of an opening number, Chazelle films the delivery of an elephant to the estate of &hellip; &#8216;Babylon&#8217; is a lavish yet unfocused valentine to Hollywood&#8217;s heyday Read More &raquo;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMiRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9tb3ZpZXMvMjAyMi8xMi8yMC9iYWJ5bG9uLW1vdmllLXJldmlldy_SAQA?oc=5\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"harchi90\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-20T15:51:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/d1i4t8bqe7zgj6.cloudfront.net\/12-20-2022\/t_468d1fb5f2aa46d693a5cdaf575e1a67_name_margotrobbie.jpg&w=1440\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"islamlacoste58\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/d1i4t8bqe7zgj6.cloudfront.net\/12-20-2022\/t_468d1fb5f2aa46d693a5cdaf575e1a67_name_margotrobbie.jpg&w=1440\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"islamlacoste58\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/babylon-is-a-lavish-yet-unfocused-valentine-to-hollywoods-heyday\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMiRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9tb3ZpZXMvMjAyMi8xMi8yMC9iYWJ5bG9uLW1vdmllLXJldmlldy_SAQA?oc=5\",\"name\":\"'Babylon' is a lavish yet unfocused valentine to Hollywood's heyday - harchi90\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-20T15:51:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-20T15:51:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0689156e87fbe869f0e5efdeef200d5b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMiRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9tb3ZpZXMvMjAyMi8xMi8yMC9iYWJ5bG9uLW1vdmllLXJldmlldy_SAQA?oc=5#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMiRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9tb3ZpZXMvMjAyMi8xMi8yMC9iYWJ5bG9uLW1vdmllLXJldmlldy_SAQA?oc=5\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMiRmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9tb3ZpZXMvMjAyMi8xMi8yMC9iYWJ5bG9uLW1vdmllLXJldmlldy_SAQA?oc=5#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"&#8216;Babylon&#8217; 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