An American epic historical black-comedy drama; A story about the rise and fall of multiple characters during Hollywood's transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s. The burgeoning era of the U. S. film industry was no less prurient, harsh, or nasty on its stars than modern-day Tinseltown so this is good background for a theme about excess and rapid change and how characters choose suffering for success. This is a provocative, tragicomic film which succeeds in presenting all that is grand about Hollywood but its own excess was its many character stories that don't lead us anywhere, so it pounds us with lavish Felliniesque scenes, lots of sweeping camera shots, high-spirit music, which are overindulgent at times, testing the patience in the long sequences. It doesn't quite capture the period either because of the with the over-polished look in sets, costumes and props and the self-entitled way people speak which sounded more like 2020s than 1930s. There's not much to care about either, only Brad Pitt's Jack Conrad is relateable. All in all, it is dazzling to watch and there is a definite feel there was a good intention to show us the magic of the movies despite its lack of cohesion.
Review of Babylon
