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Damien Chazelle's new film "Babylon," a 189-minute drunken love letter to 1920s Hollywood, bears very little resemblance to actual Hollywood history. It follows a pair of fictional would-be silent movie stars named Manuel Torres (Diego Calva) and Nellie LeRoy (Margot Robbie) as they traverse the gloriously depraved, days-long, drug-and-urine-soaked house parties where all the industry higher-ups hang out. Crossing their paths on the way down is Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a once-big star who is most assuredly aging out of his hedonism phase. The entire town is thrown into upheaval by the introduction of synchronized sound, a technological advance that causes the unending party to finally end. The stars have to work overtime to adapt, not always taking the change well. Indeed, it ruins many lives, and even the parties eventually have to move into Hell-like pits of despair. 

This, minus the hedonism, is the same story as Stanley Donen...

Few films evoke a sense of joy and wonder as readily as Singin’ in the Rain. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen co-directed the picture, which tells a fictionalized but smart version of the history of cinema as the movies embraced “The Talkies.” Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor and Jean Hagan star alongside Kelly in one of the greatest (if not the greatest) musicals ever put to film. Our review of the deluxe 60th Anniversary edition of the film on Blu-ray follows after the jump. Cut to the quick, if you have the previous special edition and didn’t sell it off in anticipation of this set, you can buy the single disc version, as it contains all the new supplements. The big box set does also comes with a booklet, a reproduction of the lobby-sized posters, and an umbrella, but all the previous supplements are in standard def on the set’s third disc.