History Film / Babylon2022

* LanguageFluencyDenial: When Manny runs into Elinor St. John, she asks him about the “upstairs bedroom” (where the drugs are kept). Don asks Manny to act like he doesn’t speak English. When Manny runs into Elinor again, he tells her in Spanish that he doesn’t speak English and leaves.

* KilledOffscreen: A newspaper during the ending [[Main/{{Montage}} montage]] reveals that [[spoiler:Nellie died at the age of 34]]. Another newspaper also reveals [[spoiler:Elinor died at the age of 76.]]

* LogoJoke: In the trailer, the stars in the Paramount logo are snorted off as if they're cocaine. At the start of the film, the Paramount logo is shot like [[{{Retraux}} a film from the 1920s]].

-->--'''Jack Conrad'''

''Babylon'' had its world premiere on December 15th in Los Angeles. It released on December 23rd, 2022.

* TheGreatDepression: The plot progresses in the 30s, showing how talkies progress from a cutting edge innovation to industry standard and the cast deal with the growing influence of MoralGuardians over Hollywood and the establishment of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode.

* HollywoodHypeMachine: InUniverse. Nellie nigh-immediately becomes one of Hollywood's hottest new starlets, but has difficulty sustaining her fame after the transition to sound films.
* HollywoodTactics: Invoked; the studio shoots a BigBadassBattleSequence that consitsts of two opposing armies running at each other in an empty field.

* PlayingDrunk: After the first party, Manny is assigned to drive a passed out Jack home. Jack seems to be completely out of it after a night of drug- and drink-fueled partying... until he startles Manny by grabbing him and laughing before sprinting up the front steps.
* PygmalionSnapBack: The studio tries to reform Nellie into a respectable actress, which includes dressing her in more conservative and opulent outfits and a teaching her how to speak poshly. But when this is tested at a bourgeois party, Nellie rejects the judgements of the upperclass and makes a defiant and messy scene (including throwing food onto the floor and on her dress and [[VomitIndiscretionShot prominently vomiting]] on a rich attendee), tanking her chances at respectability.

* SlobsVersusSnobs: Jack's dialogue with his third onscreen wife Estelle is primarily about how she (an esteemed Broadway actress) finds his silent film acting populist and lowbrow. Jack retorts that film's populism means it has ''value'', as it brings joy to exponentially more people than the stage does.

* StarMakingRole: Main/InUniverse. Nellie [=LaRoy=] gets her start from starring in the silent film ''Maid’s Off''.

* AlternateHistory: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] compared to, say, ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'', but Jack's time at MGM has some shades of this, particularly a scene implying he was in ''Film/TheHollywoodRevueOf1929''.

The film begins at a debaucherous party in 1926 Hollywood and follows the lives of several attendees over the subsequent years as the industry transitions to sound films: aspiring actress Nellie [=LaRoy=] (Creator/MargotRobbie) is abruptly shoved in the spotlight and struggles to maintain her fame; aging movie star Jack Conrad (Creator/BradPitt) wonders if his days of relevance are over; and spunky Mexican-American assistant Manny Torres (Creator/DiegoCalva) rises through the studio system.

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:A newspaper during the ending [[Main/{{Montage}} montage]] reveals that Nellie died at the age of 34. Another newspaper also reveals Elinor died at the age of 76.]]

* OhCrap: Manny has this reaction when he sees the premiere of ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' and realizes [[UsefulNotes/RiseOfTheTalkies the stateof the motion picture industry is about to change forever.]] He runs out of the theater with a shocked expression while everyone else is cheering and calls Jack on a phonebooth.

* GratuitousItalian: Jack Conrad’s first moment onscreen has him rambling to his wife Ina in Italian for some reason.

* IronicEcho: "You either are [a star] or you aren't" is first said by Nellie at the opening party of the film, as a defiant proclamation of her future rise to stardom. It's repeated by James [[spoiler:at the grotesque rave he forces Manny and the Count to attend as they watch a giant consume a live rat]]. The mirrored circumstances emphasize that ultimately, people want ''spectacle'', and a famous movie star is only one way this desire manifests.

* LargeHam: There is a ''lot'' of acting in this movie. Nellie is the most prominent example, with Creator/MargotRobbie ripping into every scene with gusto, but even those who appear for just one sequence, like Creator/SpikeJonze's German director or the unhinged AD on the college shoot, are delightfully intense.

* NeverTrustATrailer: In the first trailer, Nellie asks the partygoers if they want to see her "fight a fucking snake". In the actual film, she actually asks if they want to see her dad fight a snake - although, since her dad is [[TheAlcoholic much too drunk]], she ends up fighting it anyway.

** Sets are very loose with health and safety -- several extras are hurt (and at least one is killed) while shooting a BigBadassBattleSequence; a cameraman dies of heatstroke when filming from a box (an attempt to minimize sound during the transition to talkies).

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: A leak of the 2019 script draft showed that [[WhatCouldHaveBeen some characters were originally fictionalized versions of real actors instead of completely fictional characters]] (most notable, Nellie [=LaRoy=] was originally Creator/ClaraBow, while Lady Fay Zhu was originally Creator/AnnaMayWong), This is reflected in the final film, especially with Nellie whose early career mirrors that of Bow's.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: A leak of the 2019 script draft showed that [[WhatCouldHaveBeen some characters were originally fictionalized versions of real actors instead of completely fictional characters]] (most notable, Nellie LaRoy was originally Creator/ClaraBow, while Lady Fay Zhu was originally Creator/AnnaMayWong), This is reflected in the final film, especially with Nellie whose early career mirrors that of Bow's.

* PygmalionSnapBack: The studio tries to reform Nellie into a respectable actress, which includes dressing her in more conservative and opulent outfits and a teaching her how to speak poshly. But when this is tested at a bourgeois party, Nellie rejects the judgements of the upperclass and makes a defiant and messy scene (including throwing food onto the floor on and on her dress and [[VomitIndiscretionShot prominently vomiting]] on a rich attendee), tanking her chances at respectability.

* NeverTrustATrailer: In the first trailer, Nellie asks the partygoers if they want to see her "fight a fucking snake". In the actual film, she actually asks if they want to see her dad fight a snake - although, since her dad is [[TheAlcoholic much too drunk to manage it]], she ends up fighting it anyway.

* NeverTrustATrailer: In the first trailer, Nellie asks the partygoers if they want to see her "fight a fucking snake". In the actual film, she actually asks if they want to see her dad fight a snake.

The eccentric supporting cast includes Creator/JeanSmart as gossip columnist Elinor St. John; Creator/JovanAdepo as Sidney Palmer, a talented jazz trumpeter; Creator/LiJunLi as Fay Zhou, an openly gay cabaret singer; and Creator/TobeyMaguire (also an executive producer) as mob boss James [=McKay=].

** Fay is officially fired from Kinoscope because her official job (writing intertitles) is obsolete with the advent of sound films, but unofficially because of rumors of a lesbian relationship between her and the studio's leading lady Nellie.