Babylon
Reflecting on Hollywood’s silent film era an aspiring actress, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), crosses paths with an aspiring Production Assistant, Manny Torres (Diego Calva), setting the scene for an unlikely friendship at a time when the business and the bustle could eat a person alive. And, as luck would have it, both manage to find their own success; meanwhile, cinematic heartthrob and leading man, Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), finds himself caught up in the flurry just the same. Scraping the seedy underbelly of the beast the trio will have to make amends with their own demons if they’re to survive and stay relevant in the industry, or, is their fate already set and sealed? 
Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle (La La Land), this love letter to early cinema is sure to pique the interest of Hollywood and destined to garner some awards interest in a nepotistic way. In actuality, audiences are destined for three hours and eight minutes of superfluous story telling, it’s as though Chazelle was just too in love with his story to make any sacrificial cuts for the sake of time and the audience’s patience. At the same time, acting from the ensemble, cameos and all, comes across strong with healthy efforts in the artistic direction department and period appropriate scoring from the music department there are a lot of parts to the film that are executed in prime form, it’s unfortunate the sum of their parts is a tangled and overstuffed monster. Babylon, overstimulating and all is rated R.