Damien Chazelle’s sweeping, drug-fueled Hollywood epic Babylon hits theaters in just a few days. The reviews have been…well, mixed, to say the least. Even my own, which is fairly positive, acknowledged that it seems to be high on its own supply of cocaine and going in wildly different tonal directions at once. Maybe that’s why two new trailers, one dubbed “Naught” and the other “Nice”, debut so close to release. Will it change the narrative that’s being spun about the film? Eh, probably not.
Y’see, whether you choose the “Naughty” or “Nice” trailer, you’re still in for a healthy dose of debauchery, drugs, sex, you name it. For a film that is about Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talkies, it’s also very much about the excesses of show business and how even good people can be destroyed by it.
Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Tobey Maguire, Max Minghella, and Olivia Wilde are just part of the star-studded cast that Chazelle has put together.
Babylon opens in theaters on December 23rd.
From Damien Chazelle, BABYLON is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
