B次元官网网址淧erhaps the ballyhoo meant nothing,B次元官网网址� Kevin Brownlow wrote in his defining history of the silent film era,

ItB次元官网网址檚 probably true that even avid moviegoers have increasingly drifted away from the films of what Brownlow called, with good reason, B次元官网网址渢he richest in cinemaB次元官网网址檚 history.B次元官网网址� In 1952, the Sight and Sound poll of critics had seven silents in the top 10 films of all time. had just one.

In Damien ChazelleB次元官网网址檚 feverish and sprawling celebration of those halcyon Hollywood days and their abrupt termination, the director of B次元官网网址淟a La LandB次元官网网址� has, with orgiastic zeal, sought to bring back the ballyhoo.

Yet ChazelleB次元官网网址檚 three-plus hour extravaganza isnB次元官网网址檛 the dutiful, nostalgic ode you might expect of such a Tinseltown period piece. ItB次元官网网址檚 much messier and more interesting than that. In resurrecting the silent era and the onset of the talkies, B次元官网网址淏补产测濒辞苍,B次元官网网址� like Stanley DonenB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淪inginB次元官网网址� in the RainB次元官网网址� before it, has trained its focus on a transitional moment in moving images, painting a picture of how technological progress doesnB次元官网网址檛 always equal improvement.

Here, in unrelenting excess and hedonism, is the manic, madcap energy of the movies and the crushing maw of the mediumB次元官网网址檚 perpetual evolution. That early freewheeling frenzy is snuffed out (ironically) by the advent of sound and other forces that seek to domesticate the movies. In that way, B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� may be most addressed to our current movie era.

TodayB次元官网网址檚 film industry is similarly wracked by forces of change that may be sapping its big-screen verve. B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� is about how the movies are always reborn, but brutally so. Though it may be a chaotic shamble, ChazelleB次元官网网址檚 film makes this one point brilliantly clear: Cinema will be tamed for only so long; the parade will go on.

This is, to be sure, not a strictly accurate history. Chazelle has taken a B次元官网网址減rint the legendB次元官网网址� approach to B次元官网网址�20s Hollywood, drawing partly from the pre-code scandals and myths of Kenneth AngerB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淗ollywood Babylon.B次元官网网址� His film, a romp and tragedy at once, is sometimes enthrallingly, often exhaustingly played at a manic pitch, careening from set piece to set piece. Striving to impress the wildness of the time, B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� overdoes it, striking a cartoonish over-the-top note from the start, and then, for three hours, trying vainly to sustain its drug-fueled fever dream of bygone Hollywood. That makes for an overstuffed and B次元官网网址� especially by the increasingly wayward third act B次元官网网址� meandering film.

But itB次元官网网址檚 also an insistently alive one thatB次元官网网址檚 hard to look away from, with flashes of brilliance. For a director known for more tasteful and sentimental excursions, B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� is a lurid descent into debauchery. Sometimes itB次元官网网址檚 an unnatural fit. ItB次元官网网址檚 too showy and too long. But ChazelleB次元官网网址檚 film is something to reckon with, and the kind of ambitious swing that a young director of talent deserves credit for daring.

We start in Bel Air, which in 1926 is almost comically rural. In long groves of trees a fixer named Manny (Diego Calva, an arresting breakthrough) is cajoling workers to help him get an elephant up the hill for a mammoth party to be thrown by a movie mogul (Jeff Garlin). A spot on the guest list (B次元官网网址淚 heard something about Garbo,B次元官网网址� Manny says to a policeman) is all he needs for most favors. In the filmB次元官网网址檚 first opening minutes B次元官网网址� an avalanche of elephant excrement that cakes even the camera lens; at the mansion in the hills, a bacchanal of sex and cocaine B次元官网网址� exist both the indulgence and grotesqueness of Hollywood.

The party scene seems designed to match or better Martin ScorseseB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淭he Wolf of Wall StreetB次元官网网址� for extravagance. ThereB次元官网网址檚 a riff here on the Fatty Arbuckle-Virginia Rappe scandal, but in the heady swirl, the only things that really register are Manny, a Mexican immigrant with dreams of rising in the industry, and Nellie La Roy (Margot Robbie, in an echo of her performance in B次元官网网址淥nce Upon a Time B次元官网网址� in HollywoodB次元官网网址�), a young actress trying to break into the movies. SheB次元官网网址檚 sure of it. B次元官网网址淵ou donB次元官网网址檛 become a star,B次元官网网址� she tells Manny. B次元官网网址淵ou either are one or you ainB次元官网网址檛.B次元官网网址�

In its ecstatic early scenes, B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� throbs with their almost primal showbiz aspirations. B次元官网网址淭o be part of something bigger,B次元官网网址� Manny says. TheyB次元官网网址檙e quickly on their way. Nellie is cast as a last-minute fill-in while Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a silent star in the Douglas Fairbanks mold, brings Manny along with him the next day to set. Each will make their nimble way up, with a widespread cast of characters swirling around, including a Black band leader (Jovan Adepo), a tuxedo-clad chanteuse named Lady Fay Zhu (a bewitching Li Jun Li) and gossip reporter Elinor St. John (Jean Smart, fabulous).

Nothing is quite as vivid in B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� as its teeming studio of outdoor sets (care of production designer Florencia Martin) where Nellie and Manny each find themselves the day after the party.

There is so much more to come after these scenes: the epochal arrival of B次元官网网址淭he Jazz Singer;B次元官网网址� NellieB次元官网网址檚 farcical first try on a sound stage; a nighttime dance with a poisonous snake; JackB次元官网网址檚 painful slide out of the limelight, followed by his come-to-Jesus moment with Elinor (B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 bigger than you,B次元官网网址� she tells him of the movies); a late misjudged plunge into a dark Los Angeles underworld with a mob boss played creepily by Tobey Maguire; a leap ahead to a 1950s movie theater playing B次元官网网址淪inginB次元官网网址� in the Rain.B次元官网网址� Some of these scenes (the sound stage, ElinorB次元官网网址檚 moment) are terrific.

Much is overcooked. B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� is never quite rooted in either Nellie or Manny, whose arcs feel increasingly dictated by the filmB次元官网网址檚 real narrative engine, Hollywood history.

But the best of B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� is there, a couple hours earlier, at the carnivalesque Kinoscope lot in the desert. ItB次元官网网址檚 a mad moviemaking nirvana, with films being shot all over and many of the participants women or people of color B次元官网网址� a reminder that the early days of film were in some ways more open and inclusive than the Hollywood eras that came later.

A Dorothy Azner-like filmmaker directs Nellie, who proves a natural. Up the hill, Manny strives to assist the sprawling sand-and-sword epic thatB次元官网网址檚 desperate to get one last shot before losing the light.

B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� is never so exhilarating as when sweat, luck and a chance butterfly conspire to make a moment of movie magic thatB次元官网网址檚 sealed with those divine words: B次元官网网址淲e got it.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淏abylonB次元官网网址� a Paramount Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity, bloody violence, drug use, and pervasive language. Running time: 189 minutes. Three stars out of four.

B次元官网网址擩ake Coyle, The Associated Press