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Babylon

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02:18

Babylon

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• Comedy
• Drama

• 2022
• Damien Chazelle
• 188 mins
• 18

Summary

Period comedy drama starring Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva. In 1920s Hollywood, against the backdrop of the coming of sound film-making, Mexican immigrant Manny Torres experiences the highs, lows and sheer excess of this new industry. His fate intertwines with those of two actors: vivacious ingenue Nellie LaRoy and silent star Jack Conrad, whose career is on the wane. Amid all this glitz and glamour, disaster is never far away.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Patrick Cremona

La La Land and First Man director Damien Chazelle lays bare the debauchery of Hollywood's Golden Age in this riotous account of the transition from silent pictures to talkies. Across three frantic hours, the film follows a number of larger-than-life personalities, including Margot Robbie's vivacious young starlet Nellie LaRoy and Brad Pitt's carousing leading man Jack Conrad (inspired by Clara Bow and John Gilbert, respectively), as they attend all manner of outrageous parties and navigate the radically changing film landscape of the time. Directed with real gusto by Chazelle, it's a sprawling, sometimes shocking epic that occasionally sacrifices narrative cohesion in favour of glamour and glitz. But there are some truly electric set pieces - including a memorable sequence featuring a terrifically sleazy Tobey Maguire - while Justin Hurwitz's thundering score ensures it's a consistently exhilarating sensory experience. The self-indulgent ending will leave some audience members scratching their heads, but it's a fitting conclusion to a film that celebrates cinema while acknowledging the industry's shortcomings.

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7.1/10

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Streaming

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• Sky Store

Credits

Cast

rolenameNellie LaRoyMargot RobbieJack ConradBrad PittManny TorresDiego CalvaSidney PalmerJovan AdepoElinor St JohnJean SmartLady Fay ZhuLi Jun Li George MunnLukas HaasJames McKayTobey MaguireRobert RoyEric RobertsEstelleKatherine WaterstonIrving ThalbergMax MinghellaConstance MooreSamara WeavingIna ConradOlivia WildeDon WallachJeff GarlinBob LevineFlea Ruth AdlerOlivia HamiltonMax (Ruth's assistant director)P J ByrneThe CountRory ScovelWilsonEthan SupleeOtto Von StrassbergerSpike JonzeJane ThorntonPhoebe TonkinOfficer ElwoodPatrick Fugit

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Crew

rolenameDirectorDamien Chazelle

Details

Theatrical distributor

Paramount

Released on

2023-01-20

Languages

English | German | Italian | French | Hungarian | Spanish

Guidance

violence, swearing, sex scenes, nudity, drug abuse

Formats

Colour

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