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Warning: This post spoils the end of Damien ChazellesBabylon.
And then theres Damien ChazellesBabylon.
Like its counterparts, Chazelles Jazz Age fever dream sets its emotional climax in an old-fashioned movie house.
The Los AngelesTimesJustin Changcalls it an explosion of cinema thats simultaneously dazzling and depressing.
And RogerEbert.comsBrian Tallericodubs it the falsest material in Chazelles career.
How could a single sequence cause such consternation?
The second is that its plot is essentiallySingin in the Rainby way ofBoogie Nights.
For Jack, figurative immortality is cold comfort.
As some silent stars of legend did like comedianKarl Dane he takes his own life.
Like an apparition, Nellie simply vanishes into the night.
In a flurry of trade headlines, we zoom forward in time.
Then, suddenly, its 1952.
A middle-aged Manny returns to Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
He wanders the sets he used to call home and finds he has left no trace.
Emotionally bereft, he begs off from the family vacation and catches a movie alone.
That movie, of course, isSingin in the Rain.
As the film unspools, Chazelle underlines its similarities to the one weve just watched.
The ear-screeching starlet Lina Lamont is unmistakably Nellie LaRoy.
The movies aint they grand?
Critics (mostly) hate it!
There have been more bullish interpretations.
Chang is inclined to give Chazelle even more credit.
