Babylon

Our latest Film Studies series will feature 25 minute introductions by film historian and curator Donald Brackett, followed by the screenings and a brief audience talkback.

Damien Chazelle’s second Hollywood on Hollywood movie (after La La Land) follows Margot Robbie as a starlet on the make at the tail end of the silent film era in the late 1920s, and a couple of friends she makes along the way, Manny (Diego Calva), who becomes a studio executive, trumpet player Sidney (Jovan Adepo) and established heartthrob Jack (Brad Pitt). Careening between audacious set pieces, the film has an epic, episodic feel, and touches on darker themes than other movies in this series. If you can imagine what Singin’ in the Rain might have looked like if directed by Quentin Tarantino, that’s about what to expect. At this point the film has a peculiar critical status: depending on who you talk to it is either a masterpiece, a disaster, or a future cult classic. It also just might be all these things at once.

All films will screen again, without the talk.

Utterly brilliant–extravagant, over the top, hilarious, thought-provoking […] One of those movies that reviews badly and is acclaimed as a classic in 20 years.

Stephen King

Babylon is dazzling from a technical perspective and has some of the best music composed for a movie in recent memory. It challenges, provokes, celebrates, and condemns all at once. It’s overwhelming and messy, but history will likely be kind to it.

James Urquhart, Collider (30 Best Movies of the 2020s So Far)

Donald Brackett, a Vancouver-based film critic and historian who writes about the art and craft of movies and their place in our pop culture, is the author of many articles and essays on the subject, as well as being the guest-curator of several film programs for Cinematheque. He is the author of several related books, the most recent being Double Solitaire: The Films of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, which explored their collaborative impact on the golden age of Hollywood.