When I hear of a new Damian Chazelle film, as well as getting naturally excited, I think of that obsession for being the best at what they do and of course a lot of jazz music.
Chazelle has given us some of the most highly memorable films of the past decade. From the adrenaline-rushed Whiplash, to the dreamy La La Land and the beautifully atmospheric First Man. One thing for sure is that Chazelle gives us natural awards contenders.
The marketing for this particular new release has given us signs of something quite chaotic with some insane set pieces that certainly made me want to see it to be believed.
Well, straight away we get a few pretty disgusting moments to give us enough of an idea of what to expect for the next three hours. I was certainly getting similar tonal choices of The Great Gatsby, The Wolf Of Wall Street, Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood with crazy parties and full-on adult themes that don't hold back on its 18 rating. That along with spectacular cinematography, long-take sequences and a mass amount of extras, it certainly plenty of content to be keep your interest. There were also clear homages to Singin' In The Rain. From the time period to particular sequences being recreated and even have a scene of people watching the film itself.
While all of that is happening, there is clear signs of story arcs developing at a time period that naturally fascinates me. It for me showed the cruel side of Hollywood whilst still giving us some hope of showing how movies can extend the lives of its past stars. It also has that regular aspect of the pursuit for perfection.
The cast list is pretty strong and there were a number of stand-outs. Margot Robbie absolutely gives it everything in this role. Robbie gives a big physical presence to her character and manages match the energy of the film itself.
Brad Pitt does a good job and gives us the films slower and more moving moments. Especially in one scene with Jean Smart who gives us a few scene stealing moments. Li Jun Li also gives us a few memorable moments as well.
Diego Calva gives us a huge breakthrough performance. While he is basically playing the audience, Calva shows great innocence and a nicely developed story arch to gives us our most complete character. I also have to give props to Jovan Adepo who gives us another memorable character to get invested with.
As mentioned earlier, the production on this is pretty insane. The scale of everything is pretty large to say the least and it needs to be seen on the big screen, the costumes are spectacularly varied and the editing enhances the chaos to a point where it seems out of control.
That last bit I think could lose a lot of people though. The whole film is a bit relentless and is figuratively shouting at the audience. Also with the duration being just over 3 hours, it could make the whole experience borderline insufferable.
It's like as if Chazelle was let loose and had no-one to pull the reigns back on him. This is particularly noticeable in the very final scene that while I get what it's trying to portray, it went a bit over the top for me. But I still appreciate what it was saying and I remained somewhat satisfied with it.
Even though I felt it went off the rails at times, I personally still found it to be quite an enjoyable experience. There is simple too much to like and appreciate and it massively outweighed the bad for me. There are some spectacular set-pieces, a lot of strong performances and it covers themes that film fans like myself are a sucker for. However, I'm not quite sure the 3 hours+ runtime was warranted as there was a side story in the second half that wasn't really needed.
For the uninitiated, I would probably prepare by watching Singin' In The Rain first and then have an expectation of seeing moments of excessiveness in every way. It's a wild ride and I while I enjoyed most of it, it will not be for everyone.
One thing I do hope everyone's takes out of it, is the intrigue to find out more about a time period in the industry that was known as 'Pre-Code Hollywood'.
Rating: 8/10
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