Hollywood as "Babylon"

David Milch has explained in interviews that when he was writing "Deadwood," he found it necessary to upgrade the profanity to modern language, because using the historically accurate terms sounded far too tame for his purposes.  Likewise, I suspect that Damien Chazelle found it necessary to upgrade the bawdy behavior of his 1920s Hollywood hedonists to match modern standards.  In both cases, I think the creators went overboard.  I had a hard time watching "Deadwood" with a straight face and quit after five episodes.  And after a sick elephant loosed a stream of diarrhea on hapless workers and the camera lens in the first five minutes of "Babylon," followed shortly by other "Jackass" style antics at a drug-fueled bacchanalia, I was sorely tempted to call it quits.

I'm glad I didn't, because the rest of "Babylon" is a pretty good tale of fame and flameout in the early days of the movie business.  There are more episodes of wild behavior peppered throughout the film, to help Chazelle demonstrate that early Hollywood was a free-for-all of fast-living creative chaos before the town was cleaned up in the 30s.  However, most of the film is a pretty standard showbiz story about a rising star named Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), and a young film assistant, Manny (Diego Calva), who falls in love with her.  Other characters include a silent screen hero, Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a talented black trumpet player, Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo), a gossip-mongering reporter, Elinor St. John (Jean Smart), and a Chinese cabaret singer, Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li).  Most of these characters are loosely based on real figures from the silent and early sound eras.  A ton of other familiar faces show up for smaller parts and cameos, including Lukas Haas, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, and Tobey Maguire in a role that is way too fun to spoil.

There is some excellent filmmaking in "Babylon," especially when it comes to depicting the art of filmmaking.  Manny and Nellie's first day on a film set is an incredibly designed and choreographed sequence where we watch multiple silent film productions being shot at the same time, including a historical epic with hordes of out-of-control extras engaging in combat.  Later, this is contrasted with the laborious process of shooting for sound, where being confined to a single, overheated, tightly controlled soundstage sucks all the joy and creativity out of the shoot.  And slowly but surely, "Babylon" transforms from a raucous comedy into a sentimental, nostalgic tearjerker about lost loves and the magic of silver screen immortality. Though Chazelle portrays Hollywood as a dream-crushing snake pit, like so many other directors he can't stop being in love with the town and its output.  And though he tries to show us old Hollywood through a more updated lens with modern actors, he's still obsessed with recreating the bygone movie glamor from nearly a century ago.  

I think I'd be more forgiving toward the film, elephant bowel movements and all, if Chazelle had exercised some self-restraint in other areas, and hadn't let "Babylon" balloon to a punishing three hours in length.  I really can't blame him for taking the opportunity to make the film without compromise - it's clearly a dream project, with Paramount footing the sizeable budget - but packing so many characters, so many tonal shifts, and so much incident into the movie really weighs it down.  "Babylon" occasionally feels like a miniseries haphazardly re-edited and chopped down to feature length, and some episodes like the gangster subplot easily could have been left out.  The indulgent finale montage would have been fine as a standalone piece, but comes across as grating at the end of such a plus-sized feature.  The fact that everyone from Sam Mendes to Kevin Smith has constructed similar paeans to the moviegoing experience this season doesn't help.

"Babylon" is good - great, even - in smaller chunks and individual scenes.  Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances in a decade.  Jean Smart has a killer final monologue.  Jovan Adepo and Margot Robbie continue to shine, and newcomer Diego Calva shouldn't want for work after this.  The production design, the music, the cinematography - everything about the film is impeccable in conception and execution.  However, it is also oddly self-sabotaging.   Like David Fincher's "Mank," the only people who would truly appreciate all the homages and appeals to remember Hollywood's past are the same people Chazelle threatens to alienate with his populist anachronisms and venal humor.   I admire the daring and the ambition and the enormous amount of work and research that went into "Babylon," but it's also very clear why audiences are giving it the cold shoulder.

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