Babylon

“I wanna be a part of something bigger! Something that lasts, that means something!”What an outrageous, maximalist masterpiece. Each frame bursting with life. How can great art come from such exploitative and immoral places? How can Manny, after all the exploitation, deviance, and near death experiences in the film industry, still love and appreciate the art form? How can we have confidence that our legacy will live on past our short lives on this earth? Art reflects life. It reflects our lived experiences and moves us as such. NOTHING can quench the beauty of it. This film - what a beautiful way to say it. We open on the Tower of Babel strong and tall. Then each party represents a slow but sure crack in its foundation. All the exploitation and immorality comes tumbling down in the end, but what remains is that love of art; being moved by it. Escaping into it; relating to it. Every time I’m right there with Manny, crying with him in that theater at the indescribable feeling of watching a movie. Every time I’m right there with Jack - assured realizing that he will be alive again every time someone throws a frame of his through a sprocket, but melancholic knowing that his time making art is up. Suicidal at the state of the world and institutions that uplift you then discard you without hesitation. I’m right there with Nellie, outraged at a world that exploits you, degrades you, and leaves you for dead. How tempting and enticing is that black void of numbness - to just dance right in and disappear. What a tragedy to succumb to it. The juxtaposition of the beauty of life and art with the horror of it. Oh how they intertwine! And life goes on. Will you crash under the rubble of the fallen Babylon or will you make it out alive and thank it for what it taught you? An ode to the unparalleled beauty of creating art that’s smothered with seething and rich commentary. I marvel every time. I’m inspired every time. How you can come out of this and not be I will never understand. Damien Chazelle, we most certainly do not deserve your filmmaking.