Sprawling and indulgent, Babylon sets out to capture the excesses and craziness of early Hollywood with gleeful abandon - and that's just the thirty-minutes-long pre-title sequence! Set in the 1920s and moving into the 30s, Babylon mostly follows the stories of two wannabees working their way up the Hollywood system (expertly played by Margot Robbie and Diego Calva) and an older established star (a note-perfect Brad Pitt). The three lengthy acts (the Silent Era, the arrival of sound, the fall) chart the legends and changes in the early film industry effectively, yet in spite of a running time of over three hours the film says nothing new and does it with a lack of subtlety. The film is nevertheless lavishly mounted and energetic, and it is to the great credit of the three lead performers that their stories engage over the length of the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment