Damien Chazelle crafts a hedonistic Hollywood fever dream in first Babylon trailer
Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Toby Maguire, Jean Smart, Olivia Wilde and more appear in the film's fast-paced trailer
The wunderkind is back, baby. Damien Chazelle’s latest ode to Hollywood promises to be an even bigger spectacle than La La Land, more rollicking, raucous, and raunchy than any of his films that have come before. The first trailer for Babylon has pizazz, among plenty of other tantalizing tidbits so numerous the eyes barely know where to look.
It begins, iconically, with Margot Robbie snorting up the Paramount Logo before sharing her showbiz dreams with Manny (Diego Calva). What follows is a propulsive montage through a hedonistic, pre-Hays Code Hollywood, sexy, alluring, and surely exhausting for all those energetic, writhing partiers.
Much like his Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt plays a major movie star who has already made his mark on the City of Angels. “You know what we have to do? We have to redefine the form. Map those dreams and print them into history. Look up and say, ‘Eureka! I’m not alone.’” He monologues before doing a little jig and falling off a balcony. Elsewhere, Robbie gets the attention of “all you big-dick Mr. Men” by volunteering to “fight a fucking snake.” This movie really has everything!
That includes: alligators and elephants, drug-fueled orgiastic dance floors, Emmy winner Jean Smart, a film-within-a-film big battle scene, a possibly-real machine gun, Don’t Worry Darling darling Olivia Wilde having a freak-out, a cage fight, a creepy-looking Toby Maguire (who also, fun fact, executive produced the film)—and all of that under three minutes. Who knows what other surprises the full product has in store.
Babylon also stars Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, and Samara Weaving. It opens Christmas day 2022, coming on the heels of the season’s other major movies-about-movies, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans and Sam Mendes’ Empire Of Light. Cinephiles will be eating good the next few months!