Babylon (2022)

Babylon is a great movie, as some critics can appreciate, but there are many who don't like it, including the Oscar committee, who have only nominated it for costumes, music and production design. I can't believe it's not nominated for best picture, directing, editing and cinematography. I thought people in show business loved movies about themselves. And this is one of the better ones. It somehow has the smell of internal bickering.

Anyway, that's their loss, and Damien Chazelle, who already has his Oscar (for "La La Land"), will probably be fine. But let me repeat: Babylon is a great movie and it's over three hours long, so make a bucket of popcorn before you enter the roller coaster. The plot seems well thought out, but the narrative structure is as quirky and episodic as the Roaring Twenties themselves. We start in 1926 with a gigantic and very impressive Fellini-style orgy introducing us to the three main characters who don't yet know each other: Manuel Torres, a young Mexican immigrant (who is the handyman for the millionaire producer throwing the party, which ends in an incident clearly inspired by the infamous Fatty Arbuckle scandal); middle-aged Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), already a big name in Hollywood; and starlet Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), an unpolished wild child from a home without a piano, but with a photogenic look and a God-given ability to cry on demand. She is based on Clara Bow, just as Pitt's character is modeled on John Gilbert, who couldn't handle the transition from silent movies to talkies. And this particular period (as in the oft-referenced 'Singing in the Rain') is exactly what the movie is all about. Through a wealth of anecdotal evidence, these three characters are linked to each other and a host of others. Thanks to an innate organizational talent, Manuel quickly rises to head of a film studio; Nellie ends up a silent movie star, but we're in the late twenties and sound technology can't be stopped, which proves disastrous for Jack.

One actor who should also be mentioned is Toby Maguire, whom I haven't seen in ages, but unexpectedly appears towards the end in a fine character role as a stir crazy gangster boss.

Let's take it one more time: Babylon is a great movie for all senses, and Damien Chazelle, who hasn't made a bad movie yet, is currently battling Denis Villeneuve for the number one spot on my top ten list.