Transcript
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Sodom and Gamora might be a more appropriate title for a film all about excess and depravity.
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This is movies first with Alex first.
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Babylon charts Hollywood's golden age and the transition from the silent era to talkies.
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It does so primarily through the eyes of a bona fidey star a girl from the wrong side of the track's intent on making it, a lowly errand boy who gets an unexpected break.
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A proud, shameless and talented lesbian and an African American jazz trumpeter.
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Babylon is wild and audacious and makes no apologies for being so.
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The film starts in 1926.
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A Mexican born worker, Manny Torres Diego Calver, is being paid to get an elephant to a sought after Hollywood party that still occur that night.
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It's an event where debauchery is the stock in trade.
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The biggest star attending is Jack Conrad Brad Pitt, who isn't seeing eye to eye with his wife.
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A gate crasher at the function is Nellie Leroy Margot Robbie.
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She's big on life, drugs and gambling.
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Torres is immediately besotted and sees that she's let in.
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He soon realizes that the pair has a common goal, namely, to make it.
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In the film industry, both get their chance.
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Although what they confront is eye opening, the advent of sound forever changes the dynamic, and adapting to it is far from certain.
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So it is that the careers of some of Hollywood's biggest silent era stars and starlets came to a shuddering halt.
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Conrad is sidelined, while Leroy's porn shore for the punt and illicit substances is an increasing problem.
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It's left to Torres to try to pick up the pieces which sees him walk into a viper's nest.
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Babylon certainly leaves an indelible impression.
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In short, it's unforgettable.
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Another recent release, Triangle of Sadness, sparked controversy with an elongated vomit sequence.
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That's a walk in the park compared to some of the scenes in Babylon.
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The picture is colorful and lavish.
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Cinematography is by Sharon Meyer and production design by Melanie Paziz Jones with a memorable score from Justin Hurwitz.
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He worked with the writer and director Damien Chazelle on First Man, Lala Land and Whiplash Chiselle is clearly set out to shock with his graphic and ongoing representation of extreme behavior.
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The elongated opening night party is a case in point.
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It's fast paced and unrelenting and hits you like a freight train.
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So much so that I found myself thinking, Enough already.
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But that, of course, was the whole point to highlight over indulgence and the consequences thereof.
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I greatly appreciated the wicked humor in Babylon, which Chiselle exploits to full effect.
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Margot Robbie is sensational as Nelly Leroy, a pretty girl with a bare bones existence and addiction issues, but plenty of gumption.
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She enters the fray like a whirlwind, a force of nature reminiscent of her roles in Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey.
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Full on with no off valve.
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There's no question that the film would have been far poorer without her drive and energy.
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White eyed Diego calva is Leroy's antithesis as Manny Torres, a man who quietly goes about his business without putting noses out of joint.
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He plays an important role in the movie, which gains traction as events unfold.
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Brad Pitt steps effortlessly into the persona of leading figure Jack Conrad, who has the world at his feet until he doesn't.
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There's both revelry and sadness about his characterization.
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I enjoyed Babylon more and more as it developed.
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There's a decent case to be made for the film to have been wrapped up earlier than it was, namely a scene in which the key character, Nellie Leroy, walks off into the darkness.
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That would have left it open to us, the audience, to form our own conclusion about what happens to her and Manny Torres.
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Regardless, Babylon left me excited and enthusiastic about what was presented on the big screen.
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I found that patience was rewarded.
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It's undoubtedly a bold offering which sets out to poke and prod and ultimately explode the fairy tale around the Hollywood dream factory.
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It definitely succeeds in doing so of attraction to film buffs.
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I dare say Babylon's extended running time 3 hours and 9 minutes, and treatment of the subject matter will have limited appeal to the mass market.
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It scores an eight and a half out of ten.
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You've been listening to movies first with Alex.
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This has been another quality podcast production from Bites.com.
