Film Shapes

Whatever else this film will be remembered for, it can't be denied that this is uber-confident, scintillating filmmaking from Damien Chazelle. It starts with an elephant shitting all over some dude and charges along at a pace that only allows a breath around 45 minutes in. This is a film that does not give one single fuck, and it's not like this Chazelle fella is Nolan or Spielberg or Cameron, or someone who can call the shots. I may be wrong (wouldn't be a first) but it seems like he had nobody to rein him in. Usually, that's a red flag (à la Tarantino) but here it works wonders.  Babylon is set in the early days of Hollywood - 1926 to 1932 for the most part - and it focuses on a wannabe actress, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie); a matinee idol, Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt); and a young Mexican fix-it man, Manny Torres (Diego Calva). These three, and others such as gossip writer, Elinor St. John (Jean Smart), singer, Lady Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) and musician, Sidney Palmer (Jovan ...