Rating: 9.6
Premise: A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
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Paramount
Written & Directed by Damien Chazelle
Cast: Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Tobey Maguire, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Eric Roberts, Rory Scovel, Olivia Hamilton, Max Minghella, Samara Weaving, Katherine Waterston, Jeff Garlin, Flea, Spike Jonze
Runtime: 3hr 9min
Rating: 18A
Comedy, Drama, History
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IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 56%
RT Audience Score: 47%
RT Critic Average: 6.4/10
RT Audience Average: 3/5
Metacritic Score: 59
CinemaScore: C+
Letterboxd: 3.8/5
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My Review:
There’s a saying about Hollywood… it’ll take you in, chew you up, and spit you out. This is the core of Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon”. As he puts it, “it’s a hate letter to Hollywood but a love letter to movies”. I couldn’t describe it any better myself. I first fell in love with Chazelle’s filmography with “La La Land” (which happens to be my all time favourite film), and yet I was amazed to see this almost plays like the anti-“La La Land”. Where “La La Land” tends to romanticize its themes, Hollywood and the movies more, “Babylon” takes a more cynical approach, especially when dealing with Hollywood’s problematic history filled with scandal and debauchery. To me, I saw Chazelle trying to express his love of film and filmmaking as an art form, but criticizing the business and toxic culture behind it all. But most of all, it really is a celebration of film; one that is wrapped up in the most wild and absolutely insane films of the last few years! It is truly bonkers!
“Babylon” is batshit crazy in only the best way! The movie is so insane, unhinged, and ballsy that I just couldn’t help but love it! It is the most that any movie has ever movie’d, it’s on a different level from any film ever made before — it is a wonder to me that they even let Chazelle make this! This is his most ambitious film yet, and he directs the shit out of it! Honestly, he directs it like he will never make another movie, hell, like no one will ever make another movie! This is Chazelle unchained, he is a madman, directing on a level that no one else is on in this modern age of cinema. Sure, we still have Spielberg and Scorsese around… but Chazelle is easily the greatest director of his generation! He hasn’t missed yet, and somehow miraculously makes some extremely bold choices work exceptionally well here! Watching this was one of the craziest cinema experiences I have had all year!
“Babylon” is a wildly entertaining and audacious monster of a film. It has a lot to offer, but not all will be to everyone’s liking. I however, completely fell in love with the chaos of this film! I feel like to love film is to accept it at its messiest. Its most chaotic. Its most heartbreaking. Its most triumphant. “Babylon” is all of this; it is a big sprawling spectacle that is at times utterly chaotic and unhinged, but also intimate and introspective at the same time. Chazelle is crazy for taking this endeavor on… but wow did it ever pay off. It’s like if “The Fabelmans” did about 3 pounds of coke and spent 6 hours writing down disparate ideas for plot lines that would convey the true magic of cinema, then decided to spend $80 million making a 3-hour movie about all of that. It is bonkers! But at the same time, it feels like a type of old Hollywood epic that we haven’t gotten since the 50s or 60s, just so richly made and giant in scope. And yet if I had to compare it to something… it is easily a mix between “The Wolf of Wall Street”, “The Great Gatsby” and “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood”! At the same time though, it resembles a lot of classic films… films like “Singin’ in the Rain”, “Sunset Boulevard” and “Cinema Paradiso”. I won’t say how, I won’t even say why those select few came to mind but what I will say is these influences on Chazelle not only show his love of film, but also help to make this what I’m sure will one day be seen as his magnum opus. This truly is a masterwork of cinema, every single element clicks and works together perfectly 100% of the time. It’s a whole lot of movie, it’s bombastic and a lot to take in, so I understand if it takes everyone awhile to come around on it. But mark my words, 20 years down the line, everyone will look back on “Babylon” as an essential film of our time; I think it will only get better with time. I for one will always look back on it fondly; it’s a masterpiece in my eyes.
Chazelle has this incredible gift of making every element in a scene work in perfect tandem with everything else, creating these amazing crescendos that truly are the magic of cinema. We saw it in “La La Land”, with the brilliant Summer Montage, Planetarium scene and Epilogue, which all created this feeling of elation in the characters and audience. I don’t know how he does it, but somehow these perfect moments always seem to click with such magnificence and create such a profound effect on the audience. Chazelle of course has many of these moments in “Babylon”, the most notable about a 1/3rd of the way through the film, where after a long day of shooting, every character seems to be getting exactly what they wanted — Jack is filming his movie, Nelly proved herself as an actress and Manny has become part of the movies! The way the sequence is performed, shot, edited and scored was just brilliant; everything came together in this perfect crescendo that made me feel strong emotions that cinema just frankly hasn’t made me feel lots in the last decade. I truly feel the magic of film when watching “Babylon”, it’s an exceptional piece of work.
So naturally, the technical elements are outstanding! Chazelle has such a firm grip on his style, and I love that he continues to use his same team across all his films; as they all really know how to deliver what Chazelle wants. It’s film wizardry! I love the gorgeous visuals in the film, the cinematography is stunning. Chazelle really knows how to move a camera, the shots are so dynamic and fluid — the camera moves so freely that it absorbs you in the environment. There are even some impressive long takes that had my jaw on the floor! I gotta say, I loved the colour palette of the film too, the overall look of it felt like the richness of film from the 1960s — like I said, it feels like a 60s Hollywood epic! The production design and especially mise-en-scene on display was also astounding — Chazelle’s vision of the 1920s was staggering and I love how rich and full of detail every single frame was. The edit of course had such a rhythm to it, and I never felt the runtime at all, it was absolutely perfect. But what was my favourite technical element of this film, the element that I believe no one can deny was absolutely out-of-this-world fantastic? Well that would be Justin Hurwitz’s musical score! It is one of the most original scores I have heard in the last few years. I love the jazz influence in it, and the overall energy and momentum of it is incredible. Personally I could just listen to the score by itself on repeat! It is that good!
If you’re planning on seeing “Babylon”, you likely are already aware of how spectacular the ensemble cast Chazelle has assembled here is. Everywhere you turn there was a fantastic actor giving a career-best performance. As many say, there are no small parts, only small actors, and this movie proves that true. Essentially everyone gets a scene to shine and make their mark, from Li Jun Li, to Olivia Hamilton, to Jovan Adepo, Jean Smart, and especially PJ Byrne (who has one of the best scenes in the movie!). Of course the lead actors are perfection here too, Brad Pitt gives a career best performance and Margot Robbie tears through every scene with high-wire energy in what is her most physically and emotionally demanding role yet. It is a towering powerhouse of a performance, and likely her best chance at an Oscar yet! However the true star of this film, stealing scenes from even Pitt and Robbie, is Diego Calva. This is a star-making turn; when he is on screen in “Babylon”, you can not take your eyes off him. His yearning felt palpable. We root for him from moment one. He’s got an incredibly compelling presence - handsome, open-hearted and nuanced. A leading man whose name should be on every marquee.
I can’t get “Babylon” out of my head, I feel like Manny staring off into the sunset, just wanting more! I adored this movie and will treasure it for years to come. Sure, it may not be for everyone, but it worked exceptionally well for me and I hope more people give this film an honest chance. It is so insane, unhinged and ballsy and I loved that, it felt like a true auteurist vision from Chazelle! Definitely got “Boogie Nights” vibes in the way that it has these big, memorable, frenetic set pieces wrapped around a character driven story. It may be too big at times, but like its characters, it wants to be even bigger! And beneath the chaos is a profound film about the love and birth of cinema. A robustly crafted, vulgar but loving evocation of the memories that will die with us and the images that will live on forever. It touched me as a life-long cinemagoer and filmmaker; it's an eye opening, a must-watch. It is a well-acted, sonically and visually bombastic film; which does what we beg of films — to take big swings — yet never loses its common touch. Chazelle’s biggest swing comes in the last 10 minutes — the ending/epilogue is one of the boldest swing-for-the-fences moments I have ever seen in a movie! I was in film heaven — I truly cannot believe Chazelle was allowed to do what he did, but I am so happy we got that finale! He sure knows how to craft an ending! “Babylon” is what movie love really looks like, you can see how much Chazelle loves movies, but hates the business and culture surrounding them. It is unequivocally Chazelle’s best, most truthful film, and serves as a film history lesson at the same time, covering the transition from silent films to “talkies” to the increased influence of the studio system and the morality clauses they introduced for their actors. “Babylon” is bold, artistic and fascinating; it is a masterpiece that will go down in history as one of the great films of our time. If you love movies, you have to see this!
Fun Fact: Chazelle pitched this film to a producer in 2009, who thought it was a bit ambitious for the filmmaker at the time. He did, however, like the idea of the film's relationship with music and suggested Chazelle to try writing a musical. And so, this film idea would ultimately become La La Land.
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