[FILM]
BABYLON
Margot Robbie as the magnetic Nellie.
★★★
OUT 20 JANUARY / CERT 18 / 189 MINS
DIRECTOR Damien Chazelle
CAST Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li
PLOT Under the wing of fading movie star Jack Conrad (Pitt), film assistant Manny Torres (Calva) becomes swept up in Hollywood’s transition from silent to sound movies during the 1920s. Meanwhile, unruly breakout star Nellie LaRoy (Robbie) grapples with the downside of fame.
YOU WILL SELDOM find a film as simultaneously romantic and repulsive as Babylon. Damien Chazelle’s palpably impassioned, occasionally overwhelming ode to the epic moviemaking magic of the pioneering studio era features at least four bodily fluids (three of which splash vibrantly across the screen during the film’s ambitious opening 45 minutes), and chucks out grotesquely framed sex acts like candy. For every shot of a single tear rolling down Margot Robbie’s stoic face, there’s one of an elephant’s exploding rectum. It’s a visceral, mesmerising balancing act that doesn’t stop tipping throughout the film’s packed-to-the-rafters, three-plus-hour runtime.