Babylon

La La Land and First Man director Damien Chazelle lays bare the debauchery of Hollywood's Golden Age in this riotous account of the transition from silent pictures to talkies. Across three frantic hours, the film follows a number of larger-than-life personalities, including Margot Robbie's vivacious young starlet Nellie LaRoy and Brad Pitt's carousing leading man Jack Conrad (inspired by Clara Bow and John Gilbert, respectively), as they attend all manner of outrageous parties and navigate the radically changing film landscape of the time. Directed with real gusto by Chazelle, it's a sprawling, sometimes shocking epic that occasionally sacrifices narrative cohesion in favour of glamour and glitz. But there are some truly electric set pieces - including a memorable sequence featuring a terrifically sleazy Tobey Maguire - while Justin Hurwitz's thundering score ensures it's a consistently exhilarating sensory experience. The self-indulgent ending will leave some audience members scratching their heads, but it's a fitting conclusion to a film that celebrates cinema while acknowledging the industry's shortcomings.