One of the first shots in Babylon is of an elephant's anus, just as the beast lets loose a torrent of faeces – ordure that, in a confusing touch of simulated vérité, remains smeared on the lens even after the cut.
Take heed: This shot is a portent of the spectacle to come.
That it brings to mind a similarly graphic shot from last year's Blonde, Andrew Dominik's punishing study of Marilyn Monroe, is fitting: Damien Chazelle's latest is also 'a love letter to Hollywood' as written with a poison pen; a showbiz saga that fails to recognise the masturbatory element of its performative self-flagellation.
