In 1926, silent film superstar Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) stumbles out of his trailer tent dressed as a Crusades-era king, somewhere in the barren hills outside L.A., where his studio has set up multiple makeshift productions all happening simultaneously. After a day spent drinking copiously, Conrad can barely stand under his own power, and requires a crewman to half-carry him to the "set," perched on top of a hill as a staged bloody war waged between two armies cast via the soup lines, it appears rages on below him in the background.
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The “La La Land” director’s over-the-top paean to silent Hollywood, starring Margot Robbie as a hopeful actress and Brad Pitt as an affable superstar, amounts to a frenzied scrapbook.