A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.
Direction
Chazelle's opening party is 30 minutes of controlled, beautiful anarchy.
Cinematography
Linus Sandgren makes 1920s decay look like candy-coated rot.
Score
Justin Hurwitz's jazz erupts then vanishes like the era itself.
Director
Damien Chazelle
Diego Calva
Manny Torres
Margot Robbie
Nellie LaRoy
Brad Pitt
Jack Conrad
Jovan Adepo
Sidney Palmer
Jean Smart
Elinor St. John
J.C. Currais
Truck Driver
Jimmy Ortega
Elephant Wrangler
Marcos A. Ferraez
Police Officer
Shane Powers
Dale
Phoebe Tonkin
Jane Thornton
Troy Metcalf
Orville Pickwick
Hansford Prince
Joe Holiday
Telvin Griffin
Reggie
Cutty Cuthbert
Jimmy
Albert Hammond Jr.
Guest (Chicken Line)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The opening elephant sequence took two weeks to shoot and used a real elephant named Tai, though the rampage was CGI. Chazelle storyboarded it to a metronome.
The film's box office bomb status ($63M on $80M budget) ironically mirrors its subject: ambitious artists destroyed by audience indifference. Chazelle knew this might happen.
US
