Letterboxd — Your life in film

Imagine if someone made an entire movie out of the last shot of “The Blair Witch Project.” Or a creepypasta remake of “Home Alone” steeped in the ineffable fear a young child would feel if the rest of their family abandoned them in the middle of the night. Or a slow cinema version of “Paranormal Activity” that ditched jump-scares for pervasive dread, maintaining the disembodied camerawork of a found footage film while inverting the formula to show a domestic possession…

I must live my truth. I am a Babylon loyalist.

Drugs and debauchery, dreams and nightmares, legacy and obscurity. The movie is 3 hours of cocaine fueled pandemonium, but that chaos never feels like it’s chaos for chaos’ sake. The chaos has purpose- a reflection of the anxieties that consumed Hollywood during this transformative time in history. 

Everyone’s a star here, but Calva shines the brightest. The music is intoxicating, which feels like an understatement. Orpheus himself would be jealous…

I’m nearly 25 years old. I’ve already seen this once before. I’ve read the book more times than I’ve seen my own father, watched Danny DeVito’s film more times than I’ve heard my mother say she loves me. And here I am, crying with an immovable rock lodged in my throat in the cinema, once again desperately wishing I could crawl inside this story and escape the pain and hurt of years of begging for a love and a recognition…