When it comes to talking about itself, Hollywood can babble on.
Why is Hollywood so obsessed with itself?
It’s not as if Hollywood’s need to interrogate itself is anything new.
Scott Garfield/Paramount; HBO MAX; Netflix
The impulse is so frequent, one could argue it verges on narcissism.
But in 2022, the navel-gazing reached new levels of meta pastiche.
Hollywood has always been more about legend than reality, more reel than the real.
Austin Butler in ‘Elvis’.Warner Bros. Pictures
Though stories about the entertainment industry are a reliable presence, the exact forms they take continue to surprise.
Presley’s own razzle-dazzle musical persona was a far greater performance than anything a studio ever tasked him with.
But what about the 2022 projects that did confront Hollywood and moviemaking with more than a passing interest?
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, circa 1965.Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Some of them were purposeful (and those projects tended to be the most successful).
But Hawke didn’t settle for a traditional documentary with talking heads and slow zooms into black-and-white photographs.
Both present a debauched industry that runs on drugs, sex, and excess.
Star Gabriel LaBelle and director Steven Spielberg on the set of ‘The Fabelmans’.Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
Babylonbombards us with narratives, visual gags, bodily fluids, and Justin Hurwitz’s stirring speakeasy-worthy score.
The relationship between movies and the audience is held in reverence, even if nothing else is.
ButBabyloncan’t really decide if it wants to critique or celebrate the dream factory.
Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in ‘Blonde’.Netflix
Does it hold Hollywood in reverence or in contempt?
Like the silents themselves,Babylon’simages are more powerful than anything it has to say.
But above all, they did it because they had to.
Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) is carried aloft during a big-scale Hollywood production in ‘Babylon.'.Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures
BabylonandThe Fabelmansare now in theaters.Blondeis available for streaming on Netflix;ElvisandThe Last Movie Starsare both on HBO Max.
