Susan Granger’s review of “Babylon” (Paramount Pictures)
“Babylon” is a grotesquely graphic, three-hour mess of a movie about early Tinseltown!
Focusing on an era of decadent, depravity that’s the antithesis of his musical fantasy “La La Land” (2016), writer/director Damien Chazelle’s saga begins in the Roaring 1920s as Manny Torres (Diego Calva), an ambitious Mexican production assistant, navigates the tortuous hills of Hollywood to deliver a ‘live’ elephant to an extravagant, coke-fueled Bacchanalia, a messy job that doesn’t end as expected.
Choosing several tawdry tales from Kenneth Anger’s muck-raking expose “Hollywood Babylon,” Chazelle quickly segues to a thinly veiled glimpse of the rape scandal that ended actor Fatty Arbuckle’s career before introducing Nellie LeRoy (Margot Robbie), a frenzied, flamboyant starlet evoking memories of uninhibited Clara Bow, who became known as the amoral ‘It’ girl.
Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) is a composite matinee-idol based on Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and obviously John Gilbert, whose career as Hollywood’s highest-paid actor was torpedoed by the advent of sound since his soft voice didn’t match his swashbuckling on-screen persona.
Then there’s jazz trumpeter Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo), inspired by Black bandleader Curtis Mosby, and Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) as the thinly veiled lesbian icon Anna May Wong. Plus Nellie’s opportunistic father (Eric Roberts) and a seedy mob boss (Tobey Maguire).
These lavish vignettes are duly chronicled by newspaper columnist Elinor St. John (Jean Smart), drawing on the early gossip-writing careers of Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. Which inevitably led to Hollywood’s 1934 self-censorship agreement, known as the Hays Code, setting a strict moral tone, banning on-screen nudity and drug taking.
Too bad the over-the-top craftsmanship of cinematographer Linus Sandgren, production designer Florencia Martin, costumer Mary Zophres, editor Tom Cross, and composer Justin Hurwitz is simply squandered.
FYI: The Babylon concept can be traced back to D.W. Griffith’s epic silent film “Intolerance” (1916). And apparently, there’s a two-hour script rehearsal that Chazelle shot on an iPhone with him, his wife (Olivia Hamilton) and Diego Calva playing every role. Perhaps it’s better.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Babylon” barely musters a flashy, fatiguing 4. If you’re curious, wait ‘till it’s streaming.
