BABYLON
If you’re a fan of Damien Chazelle, the writer/director behind LA LA LAND and WHIPLASH, then you likely already have his upcoming fourth feature BABYLON (trailer here) on your radar. It’s set to hit theaters next week, but I had the pleasure of catching an early screening and I’m here to report: It’s three hours of a dazzling, passionate wild ride. Starring Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva, BABYLON is a frenzied ode to Hollywood in the 1920s—the rise and fall of silent films and talkies, and the decadence, depravity, sex, drugs, chaos, and excess of the era. From the opening sequence, BABYLON shows viewers right away that it’s going all out. The extravagant clips in the trailer are just a snippet of the lavish, jaw-dropping, beautifully constructed, masterfully choreographed, and at-times absurd scenes in the movie, all accompanied by a gorgeous, hyper-energized score by the genius Justin Hurwitz, a longtime collaborator of Chazelle’s, and the mind behind the unforgettable scores of LA LA LAND and WHIPLASH. As the story unfolds, we get to know three dreamers—Brad Pitt as Jack Conrad, a silent-era heartthrob; Margot Robbie as Nellie LaRoy, a giddy free spirit who knows her star-power before ever stepping foot onto a movie set; and Manny Torres, a Mexican immigrant who will take any job to work in the movies. To say the least, BABYLON is an ambitious epic, unafraid of showing an industry that is at once full of glamor and bigotry, And I’d be remiss to not mention the meticulous craftsmanship—the elaborate production design, the stand-out costumes, the dazzling cinematography—and the brilliant performance by the ensemble cast. If this sounds like your cup of tea, make sure you check it out starting next weekend!
—Mimi Li, Development Coordinator
