Babylon (2022) │ Damien Chazelle’s Love Letter to Cinema, or Suicide Note to Hollywood?

Damien Chazelle’s messy yet jaw-dropping Babylon (2022) is a wild ride through scandal-soaked 1920s Hollywood. Written and directed by Chazelle himself, this beast of a film tanked at the box office and left critics scratching their heads. While reviewers are busy untangling Chazelle’s storytelling choices, audiences just didn’t bother showing up. Paramount, the same studio that dropped 2022's mega-hit Top Gun: Maverick, is now choking down a cold serving of flop-salad.

Chazelle’s ambition here is insane. Babylon throws everything at you: massive set pieces, razor-sharp characters, jazz-fueled chaos, drugs, sex, heartbreak, betrayal, you name it. The story revolves around three main characters: Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), and Manny (Diego Calva). Chazelle’s storytelling feels like it takes a page from Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (2012), a film built around two characters circling each other’s highs and lows. Like Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd, Nellie and Jack mirror and reflect each other, but this time, they both crash and burn.

Nellie’s a wild wannabe starlet hooked on chaos and coke; Jack’s Hollywood royalty drowning in booze and fading glory. Between them is Manny, a guy so desperate to “make it” in movies that “anything” literally means anything to him. This story is basically a triple-decker character sandwich, served with a side of pure cinematic excess. The production and costume design, paired with sweeping cinematography, hurl us into a Baz Luhrmann-meets-Gene Kelly fever dream, where visuals steer the ship more than the characters themselves.

I get why critics are choking on this one. When you market snorting, shitting, puking, and fucking as high art, backlash is inevitable. Chazelle mashed together Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and sprinkled in Singin’ in the Rain for kicks. Sometimes that kind of cocktail works; more often, it blows up in your face.

Personally? I had a blast. I’m not ashamed to admit that cinematic filth, shit, puke, sex, and all is a guilty pleasure (don’t you dare judge me). Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, and Diego Calva deliver killer performances, while Tobey Maguire, Olivia Wilde, and Samara Weaving pop in for deliciously weird cameos.

In the end, Babylon feels like a daring question mark: Is this Damien Chazelle’s love letter to cinema, or his suicide note to Hollywood? You decide.