Babylon

In Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties, Manuel "Manny" Torres, a Mexican immigrant and aspiring filmmaker, works odd jobs peripheral to the burgeoning silent film industry. Manny helps transport an elephant to a debauched bacchanal — including a massive orgy, cocaine, a little person on a phallic-shaped pogo stick, and the aforementioned elephant defecating on a man — at Kinoscope Studios executive Don Wallach's mansion. There, he crosses paths with Nellie LaRoy, a brash and ambitious aspiring starlet from New Jersey, and quickly becomes smitten with her. As they share their dreams, Manny reveals his wish to be part of something bigger, while Nellie declares herself a star. While the elephant walks through the ballroom, distracting partygoers, Manny helps carry away Jane Thornton, a young actress who overdosed on drugs during a perverse urolagniac act with obese actor Orville Pickwick.