Babylon

Original characters in a fictionalized period epic; no established characters are swapped.

Margot Robbie's Nellie LaRoy is an ambitious female star but deeply flawed and self-destructive, not a flawless girlboss, and men are not framed as inferior.

• Nellie's rise and ruinous fall through addiction and gambling
• Brad Pitt's Jack Conrad is a sympathetic, tragic male lead

Includes LGBTQ+ characters and risqué period content as part of the decadence, but it's not a central message.

• Lady Fay Zhu is depicted as a queer cabaret performer
• Hedonistic party sequences with bisexual undertones

Diverse cast including a Black jazz musician and an Asian performer reflects period realities and the film's themes about Hollywood's exclusion.

• Sidney Palmer, a Black trumpeter facing racism in the industry
• Lady Fay Zhu, an Asian-American performer

Touches on racism and exploitation in early Hollywood but mostly within the story rather than sermonizing; ends on a love-of-cinema note.

• Sidney forced to wear blackface to appear darker on film
• Manny's monologue about cinema's enduring power

Critiques Hollywood's cruelty and racism but doesn't frame masculinity or the West as inherently toxic as a message.

• The racism Sidney endures depicted critically

Original screenplay, no source material to betray.