Movies Like Babylon
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.
Ranked by shared directors, cast, themes, genre, and era — not just generic recommendations.
Singin' in the Rain
The definitive film about the silent-to-sound transition Babylon dramatizes; identical 1927 Hollywood setting, silent film stars, and squeaky voice subplot mirrored almost beat-for-beat
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Sprawling, star-studded period epic about Hollywood mythology and a fading star; shares Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, plus elegiac tone toward a vanishing era
The Bad and the Beautiful
Classic Hollywood-on-Hollywood rise-and-fall saga tracing producer, star, writer and director arcs the same way Babylon traces its ensemble through the studio system
The Day of the Locust
Apocalyptic vision of 1930s Hollywood depravity, ending in a riot sequence whose grotesque excess directly anticipates Babylon's elephant-and-orgy chaos
Mank
Recent prestige drama about old Hollywood's golden era, alcoholic creative genius, and the studio machine; same 1930s milieu adjacent to Babylon's late 1920s
Man of a Thousand Faces
Biopic of silent-era star Lon Chaney spanning 1910s-1930s; covers the same silent-to-talkie transition and personal misfortunes behind the screen
La La Land
Chazelle's other Hollywood-set love letter; shares director, DP Linus Sandgren, and same melancholy-meets-spectacle attitude toward chasing stardom
Ed Wood
Affectionate portrait of a misfit filmmaker chasing Hollywood glory; same fascination with the eccentrics and outsiders of the studio era as Babylon's Manny Torres arc
Dolemite Is My Name
Underdog filmmaker biopic about industry outsiders breaking in; shares Babylon's rise-and-fall energy and reverence for scrappy moviemaking
A Star Is Born
Quintessential fading-star/rising-star pairing with addiction and self-destruction; thematically twin to Nellie LaRoy and Jack Conrad's arcs
Leaving Las Vegas
Hollywood screenwriter drinking himself to death captures Jack Conrad's late-stage spiral; shares alcoholism, despair, and industry casualty themes
Casino
Scorsese's three-hour rise-and-fall epic of cocaine, excess, and self-destruction in a glitzy industry; shares Babylon's maximalist sweep and tragic trajectory
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Old Hollywood reimagined with anarchic spectacle; nostalgic-yet-cynical view of the studio system that pairs well with Babylon's mythologizing
Tropic Thunder
Comedy about chaotic film production with monstrous egos and excess; the satirical-Hollywood register Babylon flips into manic mode
Entourage
Modern Hollywood excess and movie-star ecosystem; lighter tonal cousin to Babylon's industry-insider chaos
First Man
Same Chazelle/Sandgren creative team and period-piece craft; tonally restrained where Babylon goes maximal but stylistic DNA carries over
Bad Education
Filmmaker reckoning with sex, identity, and the movie business; shares the meta-cinematic 'movie about making movies' angle
In the Soup
Aspiring filmmaker chases his vision through chaos and shady financing; small-scale spiritual cousin to Manny's Hollywood scramble
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl
Actual silent film from the era Babylon depicts; watching it provides the historical texture Babylon lovingly recreates
The Artist
Outside-pool: Best Picture winner directly about a silent star failing to survive the talkies transition; the most thematically identical companion to Babylon
Hail, Caesar!
Outside-pool: Coens' affectionate ensemble farce about old-Hollywood studio machinery, stars, and absurd backlot life
Sunset Boulevard
Outside-pool: The original fading-silent-star tragedy; Norma Desmond is the archetype Babylon's third act explicitly riffs on
How Good Is Babylon?
Ratings across IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and TMDB, plus our verdict.
Where to Watch Babylon
Streaming, rental, and purchase options across 40+ countries.
United States
USStream
6
Netflix
Paramount Plus Premium
Paramount Plus Essential
Paramount+ Amazon Channel
Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
Netflix Standard with AdsRent
7
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
JustWatch TV
Spectrum On DemandBuy
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Barnes & NobleAmazon VideoApple TV StoreGoogle Play MoviesYouTubeFandango At HomeAvailable in 73 countries
Frequently asked about Babylon
Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.
What happens to Jack Conrad at the end of Babylon?
Jack Conrad, the silent-era star played by Brad Pitt, loses his audience and credibility once talkies take over, with critic Elinor St. John bluntly telling him his time is simply done. After a final dinner and small acts of grace, he goes to a hotel room and dies by suicide, his death reported in the papers as another casualty of Hollywood's brutal turnover.
Who is the snake-man James McKay and what is the underground sequence about?
James McKay is a gangster Nellie owes a massive gambling debt to, and Manny tries to pay him off with a satchel of prop money from the studio. McKay drags Manny and his friend Wilson into a hellish Los Angeles underworld culminating in 'the asshole of LA,' where a feral man eats live rats, exposing the rotten foundation beneath Hollywood's glamour. When McKay realizes the cash is fake, Manny and Wilson barely escape with their lives.
What happens to Nellie LaRoy after she disappears from Manny's life?
After the disastrous attempt to pay off her debts, Nellie tells Manny she loves him, dances off into the night, and walks out of the story. A title card later reveals she died in 1935, broke and forgotten, the once-electric silent star consumed by the same industry that made her a sensation.
Why does Sidney Palmer quit the movies after the blackface scene?
To keep his all-Black jazz band employable on screen, the studio insists Sidney darken his skin with burnt cork so he matches his lighter-skinned bandmates under the lights. He goes through with the humiliation to protect the others' jobs, but the degradation of being forced into literal blackface to stay 'authentically Black' on film breaks him, and he walks away from Hollywood for good.
What is the meaning of the montage at the end of Babylon?
Years later, a middle-aged Manny returns to Los Angeles with his family and slips into a cinema showing Singin' in the Rain, which fictionalizes the very silent-to-sound transition he lived through. As he weeps, Chazelle cuts to a rapid montage spanning the birth of cinema through Avatar and beyond, arguing that every individual life Manny knew was chewed up so that the larger, immortal art form could keep evolving.
Recent Updates
New Trailer: Babylon
New Teaser: Babylon
Babylon now streaming on Sooner (FR)
Babylon now streaming on Pathé Home (FR)
Babylon now streaming on Premiere Max (FR)