We got to innovate. We got to inspire. What happens on that screen, means something. What I do means something.
Jack Conrad
Jack Conrad in Babylon, an actor suffering from their career turning into a Raisin in the Sun, reminded me of Fantastic Mr. Fox. They share the same mission of seeking a greater purpose and mission outside their identities. That an imaginary someone has already promised them the fortunes and desires they deserve if they work hard enough for it. For Mr. Fantastic Fox, it seems to be the American Dream that has made that promise. For Jack Conrad, it’s American Hollywood.
Babylon is incredibly self-aware about how Hollywood makes their money, and how Hollywood creates this fantasy of eternal fame equating to eternal youth. When an actor/actress is seen as being ‘washed up’ or ‘not booking as many roles as they used to,’ well…. they may as well be dead.
Being an actor is the only job in the world that you’re expected to be doing for your entire life. Because why would you give up the glory of it all? Why is Angelina Jolie adopting Vietnamese orphans when she could be doing another Tomb Raider!????!!
There is Ke Huy Quan’s Golden Globe Award speech for Everything, Everywhere All at Once–
“For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer…”
Ke Huy Quan (2023 Golden Globe Awards) speaking of being a child actor
Conrad was an intriguing character as you witnessed the identity breakdown of an actor that gave all he could to the world until they were bored of him.
The movie seems to make us both sympathize and learn from him. That it is dangerous to believe in yourself as a gift to others. Because then you’re giving permission for others to dictate your value based on how you contribute to their lives.
Once we lose sight of this honest truth, we’re destined to hurt vulnerable people- and this is what early Hollywood in Babylon does.
Upon being released on Dec. 23, 2022, Babylon did not sell short on being a great finale for that year. Adrenaline, eroticism, eccentricity.
Babylon summary: How Hollywood starlets from the silent movie era transitioned into sound films, and how the fall of these actors/actresses assist in painting the picture of early Hollywood’s exploitation of young dreamers.
On Nellie’s (played by Margot Robbie) path to stardom, she is accompanied by a love-stricken aspiring director looking for his muse, temptatious offers from crooks and powerful show business runners, the burden of her home life (or lack of one), and whatever erratic, irresponsible decision she wants to make next. Babylon with its star-studded cast and having the same directing prowess as Whiplash, La la land, 10 Cloverfield Lane, it is guaranteed to be a movie you can’t help but recommend.. to pretty much everyone.
It almost is the perfect formula for a Golden Globe, maybe except for the fact that there is no clear protagonist or antagonist and therefore loses its classical Hollywood plotline of a hero’s journey.
This movie had a subtle cheekiness where it feels like you just caught someone winking at you from across the room and none of your friends saw it. That everyone here is slightly… crazy. And you thought that guy was crazy too, until he winked at you.
SPOILER SECTION:
Why does Manuel go from sobbing to smiling in the movie theatre at the end scene? After Nellie has just been humiliated with a caricature of herself on the screen that she’s not able to witness herself because she is dead (and probably rolling in her grave)?
….
All the characters in Babylon fail to understand the life that happens outside of the 4:3. Nellie got her dream in the end: she became a movie star. Nellie’s death may just be a corner story in the newspaper, but it is still on the front page. Normal people don’t get their deaths in the newspaper. People born after Nellie’s death were in the theatres RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT and remembering her- reliving her. They may be laughing at her legacy, but they still know who the great Nellie was. What separates film from other arts is time. But time is fleeting, which makes the art of film fleeting.