Rating: R | Runtime: 189 minutes
Release Date: December 23rd, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director(s): Damien Chazelle
Writer(s): Damien Chazelle

It’s the most magical place in the world.

The first hour of Damien Chazelle’s golden age of Hollywood homage, satire, and honorific Babylon is unhinged carnal chaos. It introduces us to the players, new (Diego Calva’s Manny and Margot Robbie’s Nelly) and old (Brad Pitt’s Jack), while also setting the stage for just how unregulated the industry was at a time when nothing mattered but ego and the picture.

So, it only makes sense that the second hour would finally make way for a narrative worth our attention as the era shifts to sound. You can’t fudge things anymore. Image becomes more than a close-up as reputation off-screen grows in importance to match the talent on-screen. Will you sacrifice everything for the payday once the game starts to play you?

I have to give Chazelle credit because he goes for broke and shows little room for regret. The camerawork and long takes. The gross out humor putting every bodily fluid and excretion in-frame and/or in another character’s face. Even having the guts to slow things down to a crawl to get real as those in power seek to control those whose work has given it to them.

It’s a whirlwind of familiar movie business tropes, anecdotes, and ideas brought to life with the loving eye of someone who can find the romance in pushing envelopes beyond their seams to capture that one perfect shot. This is the magic of cinema in all its infamy with a sprawling cast and crew relishing the opportunity to find as much humor as emotion in the caricatured nature of the beast.

Calva and Robbie’s threads are the most interesting because they start with nothing to earn everything via a mix of talent, luck, and a willingness to sell out. Pitt’s is more gradual—the established king biting off more than he can chew only to find clarity with the help of Jean Smart (the film’s best performance) and Li Jun Li. We’re watching as this trio crosses paths, ascend and descend, and ultimately reach the end of their stories once the machine decides it’s had enough (with Jovan Adepo providing a crucial counterpoint).

Are they ready to throw in the towel? Are they willing to give up the excitement? At a certain point, everyone must decide what coming to terms with their own future means. Keep pushing until life kills you. Run until death loses its grip. Or fire the gun yourself.

Unfortunately, no matter how electric those first couple hours may prove, the third (yes, full third hour) can’t help but drag. Why? Because we know how these characters’ trajectories will end. We don’t need to draw them out in ways that only corroborate that truth.

Sure, we get a fun cameo from Tobey Maguire in the film’s darkest and most deranged sequence yet, but none of it feels as immediate as the rest. It instead seems as though Chazelle simply wasn’t ready to leave this world behind—a realization that’s bolstered by a prolonged, showstopping montage sequence that literally distills the whole purpose of the film into a ten-minute love letter to the medium that shows every original scene Babylon cribbed.

Sometimes the simplest moments are the best and sadly serve to remind us just how unnecessary the rest proves. It was entertaining, though. A debauched party to reminisce with friends under an air of, “Thank God we survived it.” Because I’m not sure how much is truly there if you ever decide to do it all again.

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Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in BABYLON from Paramount Pictures.