Babylon (2022)

Nominated for Best Production Design, Best Original Score, and Best Costumes    Don't watch this movie.  It's over three hours and it's not worth one minute of your time.  If you want the full experience, watch 15 minutes of The Great Gatsby, an hour of Singin' in the Rain, 20 minutes of The Artist, and weirdly, 10 minutes of Orphan.  That's an hour and 45 minutes total and you will have achieved the same effect, minus the projectile elephant diarrhea. You're welcome.

Content warning:  suicide by gun (off-screen but there's blood spray), drug use, anti-Semitic slurs, animal death (snake, rat), projectile vomit, projectile diarrhea, and kinks including but not limited to: piss, little people, carnies, amputees, bloodsport, and a geek.

In 1926, Hollywood is a hotbed of innovation.  The film industry is booming and Nellie La Roy (Margot Robbie) knows she was born to be a star.  Manny Torres (Diego Calva) works as a fixer for studio executive Don Wallach (Jeff Garlin) but dreams of making it big.  Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) is the studio's highest paid silent star and a champion of pushing the medium to newer, greater heights.  Elinor St. John (Jean Smart) is a gossip columnist, both friend and foe to the industry.  Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) is a jazz trumpeter tired of playing in the background.  Fay Zhu (Li Jun Li) is a queer actress and title writer, adept in front of the screen or behind it.  Babylon tracks these characters from the Golden Age through the early 30s, the end of the silent era, the rise of talkies, and the implementation of the Hays Code.

I really wish Damien Chazelle would just quit and do jazz.  That is clearly his passion and he should pursue it.  This movie is long, repetitive, and (a cardinal sin) directly references other, better movies doing the same content.  However, it does blow smoke up the the collective ass of Hollywood which the Academy loves.  I don't think this will win anything and it frankly doesn't deserve the nominations it got.

It's currently only available in theaters.