The reactions are starting to roll in for Damien Chazelle's ode to Old Hollywood Babylon. Before the rest of the world will see the starry drama on December 23, several journalists got an early peak into the star-studded world of excess and shared some of their general thoughts on it all. With a legendary cast befitting its show business premise, the film explores the period between silent films and talkies with real-life titans of Hollywood intermingling with fictional characters created for the feature. Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt lead the ensemble of larger-than-life figures who rise and fall through one of the most famously decadent and depraved eras in Tinseltown.

Babylon marks a return to movie-making for Chazelle whose own star shot into the stratosphere fairly recently with the release of 2014's Whiplash. He'd go on to reach the pinnacle of Hollywood stardom with La La Land in 2016, winning his first Oscar for Best Director and becoming the youngest recipient of the award at only 32 years old. He followed that up with First Man, a biopic chronicling the journey of Neil Armstrong which earned critical acclaim in its own right. Needless to say, Chazelle's pedigree alone made his first film in four years one to look forward to and early glimpses from trailers and other promotional materials tease a return of epic scale for the director.

The exciting cast also put the project on everyone's watch list, featuring a veritable who's who of Hollywood superstars from across the industry. Robbie and Pitt are joined by Olivia Wilde, Samara Weaving, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, Jovan Adepo, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Lukas Haas, Rory Scovel, P.J. Byrne, Spike Jonze, Chloe Fineman, Jeff Garlin, and Max Minghella. While the names involved in the project are certainly fun, who they play is often just as entertaining. Fresh off of returning as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tobey Maguire was tasked with becoming a silent film extraordinaire for the film.