Sex. Drugs. Elephant poop. You get that in the first 10 minutes of this 3-hour Hollywood-on-Hollywood movie directed and written by Damien Chazelle, the young man who made white film critics go gaga with his 2016 musical love story, LA LA LAND which he also directed and wrote. This new movie of his, BABYLON, proves that this talented young filmmaker needs a cowriter. BABYLON is an opulent, action-packed fictional tale of Hollywood excess, decadence and creativity that begins in 1926 -- a year before THE JAZZ SINGER ushered in the sound era of films, thus drastically changing Hollywood technology -- and ends in 1952. It's got stylish production design and some excellent performances. However, BABYLON is basically 10 pounds of rhinestones stuffed into a 5 pound sack. Chazelle's overblown film rivals the overlong, "less is never more" size queen productions from Baz Luhrmann. Another thing: If you make a period piece such as this and have actors frequently using the F-word in their dialogue, you really don't have much to say and have lazily resorted to whipping out the 4-letter word to make your piece seem to have dramatic weight.
There isn't much of story to this 3-hour film -- and there could have been. We meet the disciplined, hardworking and creative Manuel, a handsome Mexican immigrant doing grunt duties for film executives. One such duty is the delivery of an elephant. Manuel, with his soulful eyes and quick brain is very well-played by Diego Calva. Then there's the hot mess of an aspiring movie star from New Jersey. She does not want to do the work. She just wants microwave stardom. She wants instant film fame. But she spends more time doing pills, cocaine and liquor than she does working on her craft. Margot Robbie burns up the screen making your think this role is better and more dimensional than it actually is. And there's Brad Pitt in fabulous form as a hedonistic top film star of the silent era. Of these three, the most interesting character is Manuel Torres, the disciplined person of color who wants to move up in the film production business. But we really don't start to learn anything about him until about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the movie because Chazelle -- an apostle of classic Hollywood films and folklore -- spends way too much time with the decadent Hollywood party scenes filled with naked extras, sexual fetishes and fabulous costumes. He seems out to replicate the joyfully overbaked orgy type scenes that were highlights of Cecil B. DeMille epics in the 20s and early 30s. But with his Quentin Tarantino-esque dialogue in the 1920s, Chazelle's party scenes come off like Hollywood-flavored Roman orgies recreated for nights at Studio 54 in the Disco Era.
Again, as in his LA LA LAND Chazelle shows a classic film influence. In the opening massive party scene, all is halted for some live entertainment. A lovely Asian chanteuse appears in a man's top hat and tuxedo. She sings a song called "My Girl's Pussy" and proceeds to stroll into the audience. I had a feeling she'd kiss a woman audience member on the lips they way Marlene Dietrich did during her nightclub number in 1930's MOROCCO. The Asian chanteuse did just that.
As for the Hollywood folklore, Chazelle has Robbie's wild child character become a movie star known for not wearing a bra and icing her nipples -- which reportedly was a Jean Harlow practice. She talks about the major endowment Gary Cooper was said to carry. The classic film Chazelle borrows from the most in BABYLON is SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. There's the pan of several different silent films being shot on the same soundstage just like in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN that leads into Donald O'Connor's "Make "Em Laugh" number, Robbie's Nellie LeRoy needs diction lessons like Lina Lamont did when the sound revolution rattled all Hollywood, and Pitt's silent screen star worries about his career when he sneaks into a screening of his new film which has sound. The audiences giggles at his repeated "I love you" in a romantic scene they way the sneak preview audience giggled at the new Lockwood and LaMont movie that had employed the new technology.
But is Chazelle's point to make a valentine -- although vulgar -- to SINGIN' IN THE RAIN the way Cameron Crowe's wonder ALMOST FAMOUS is a valentine to Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT? We don't know. His long script does not seem to really have a point. But it does have its moments thanks to a talented cast that lifts it. There is one scene that I totally loved. Brad Pitt's debonair yet fading film star visits a top Hollywood gossip columnist to find out why the audience laughed at his movie scene. If the popular Jean Smart gets a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for BABYLON, do not be surprised. She is sensational as the show biz-weary but helpful gossip columnist. Her tough but honest conversation with the fading star about the reality of their business and the irony about the longevity of film is outstanding and beautifully-written. Notice there's no mention of the f-word in this strong sequence. That's because director/writer Damien Chazell has something of substance to say here.
Manuel Torres is hired to assist Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) and that relationship is rather like the one between the Peter O'Toole and Mark Linn-Baker in 1982's MY FAVORITE YEAR. Manny and Jack wind up at MGM where Mexican immigrant Manny, a show biz visionary, brings a Black musician to the attention of the legendary MGM executive, Irving Thalberg. The Black musician becomes an MGM star with a huge Hollywood home and fancy car. Like Manny, he's also disciplined and hardworking. But MGM did NOT give Black talent the A-list star treatment in those days. Here's some L.A. history about racially groundbreaking architect, Paul R. Williams. In Los Angeles in 1923, the trailblazing Williams became the first African-American member of the American Institute of Architects. Williams designed homes for top Hollywood stars. White stars. Black folks, at that time, were excluded from having homes in Hollywood. The major Hollywood Studios employed talented Black actors such as Hattie McDaniel, lovely Theresa Harris, Louise Beavers, Butterfly McQueen, Ernest Anderson (of IN THIS OUR LIFE), Caleb Peterson (of ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY) and early Dorothy Dandridge and cast them often in uncredited roles, mostly as servants. With his singing voice, stage and screen acting talent and his handsome muscular frame, Paul Robeson should have been under contract to MGM. But he wasn't. Here's a trailer for BABYLON:
Had I co-written that screenplay, I would've put more focus on the Manny Torres character. I'd have made him a visionary -- like actor, singer, landmark TV executive producer and Desilu studio head Desi Arnaz in the 1950s. Torres would realize the Hollywood, seen as being loose and liberal, wasn't so liberal in giving equal opportunities to people of color and he would've done his best with his creativity at two Hollywood studios to change that, thus making a place for himself in Hollywood history books. It could've had relevance today given that Black and Latino talent is still fighting for representation, equal opportunities and equal pay.
Here's a Chazelle story: I love TCM (Turner Classic Movies). It's better now, but there was a span when you wondered if TCM was aware that Black people watch and can talk about classic films. We had a Black president in the White House for two terms before TCM hired a Black host. One of my favorite TCM features was when it invited a veteran actor or filmmaker on to be a Guest Programmer. The guest programmer would select 4 films to co-introduce and discuss. When critics were raving about LA LA LAND, TCM booked newcomer Damien Chazelle to be a guest programmer.
During that time, the rave LA LA LAND reviews were also posted on Twitter. Then one day on Twitter, I noticed a lot of buzz from critics of color about a new film screening at festivals. It was from a newcomer filmmaker who, like Chazelle, was highly influenced by Hollywood and foreign classic films. This Black filmmaker was Barry Jenkins. TCM never gave any attention to Barry or his film, MOONLIGHT. Chazelle's LA LA LAND landed 14 Oscar nominations including Best Picture.
Then came that now-historic, unexpected and memorable Oscar moment on live TV when the real winner for Best Picture was ...... LA LA LAND MOONLIGHT.
Manny Torres in BABYLON would have loved that.
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