Babylon

This film starts out unpromising, with an opening sequence that celebrates people who are not in control of themselves. Only after that bit of showiness does the movie get on with its story, which, as one would imagine of a tale about people not in control of themselves, ends somewhat predictably. Really, though, those particulars of storyline are only the surface presentation; this movie’s actual subject is the nature of the movie business itself. Which, it turns out, really isn’t much more elevated than the behavioral grand guinol depicted in that opening. Thus, this work traces multiple parallel arcs of success and failure until we, viewers, characters and all, arrive at our eventual, rather inevitable ends. ultimately, this film wants to argue in favor of something greater in the nature of the movie biz, as have so many other “prestige” movies that exist along these same lines, though its conclusions are, at last, only half convincing. The final result of all that effort—and I do mean “all”; the full film clocks in at a heavy three plus hours—is a jittery, showy, but otherwise standard Hollywood cinematic ourborous: a grand example of the film industry vigorously fellating itself. Whether or not you find such a project entertaining is entirely a “your mileage may vary” situation.