Babylon

When this writer was born, a film about Hollywood and the transition from silent to talkies was introduced to the world.  It was light and breezy, funny, engaging without the slightest off-color reference, set in the 20’s with a bouncy soundtrack, this is not a remake of that film.  We see a woman with an exaggerated case of coke-fueled chutzpah working her way up the ladder, an incredibly rich and handsome leading man trying to figure out if he’s going to be able to survive the transition, a dreamer who wants to realize his ambitions as a director, and a studio musician who shows how to handle extreme prejudice.  Without question, the soundtrack is fantastic, but the dancing is not Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds by any stretch of the imagination. 

Think Day of the Locust, Sin City and the Great Gatsby with every debased drug-induced act of desperation to make magic on the celluloid screen.  The goal is to be noticed, make tons of money, and to create an illusion of everything’s all right when, in fact, after the initial high of success, it’s a rat race to get back to even half way to where you started.  This is a high stakes crap game of a film with not so nice backers…no Nathan Detroit or Sky Masterson, the leading lady is not a sweet little ingenue starlet (Margot Robbie), the hero (Diego Calva) is doing everything he can to make it in the business, a Gatsbyesque leading man (Brad Pitt) with a serious misconception of reality and a big drinking problem, Hedda Hopper’s alter-ego (Jean Smart), and whole menagerie of partiers, gangsters, whackadoodles, chickens, rats, a cast of thousands, and a very tempermental pachyderm.

There really isn’t much of a middle-road here.  You’ll either love it or be disgusted beyond belief or both.  What can I say…I can’t really give this an overall star rating…it’s 4, a 2, a 7 a total hot mess  --- you decide, you’ve been advised, but definitely listen to the soundtrack.  And I cahn't sten im.