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Babylon Movie Review

Babylon is a 2022 epic period drama film directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Margot Robbie, Diego Calva and Brad Pitt. It is a messy, but undeniably ambitious movie.

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“It’s written in the stars. I am a star“

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Decadence, depravity and outrageous excess lead to the rise and fall of several ambitious dreamers in 1920s Hollywood as the industry begins to transition from silent pictures to the world of sound films. As a huge fan of Damien Chazelle, I was excited to watch this film despite mixed reviews that geared more toward negative than positive. I am glad that I saw it as it ended up being pretty strong despite its numerous flaws.

This is a chaotic movie, but from chaos art can erupt, which is arguably what happened in this instance. There is a lot of hypocrisy from film critics who would celebrate the chaos present in Fellini movies, but criticize one that is present in Babylon. For me, this frenetic, kinetic mayhem stood perfectly as a metaphor for Hollywood itself during the transition from silent to sound cinema. Confusion as a feeling was particularly well depicted in this story.

Thematically speaking, Babylon deserves more attention than it received. There is this one scene where a columnist explains to the Brad Pitt character that he is done as a movie star. This is a crucial moment where the movie establishes once for all that the vast majority of silent stars did not lose their careers due to having “a bad voice”, but rather something different. And that something is that it was simply their time to disappear as audiences choose when they lose interest in a movie star on their own with most explanations given just being arbitrary.

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There is this strong emphasis on time passing and the theme of immortality throughout Babylon. In a nutshell, the film proposes that Hollywood as it was back in that time is now long gone, but in that emotional finale Chazelle suddenly states that the industry will live on in one way or another. How the idea of Hollywood and movie magic was treated here was definitely chaotic as is the entire movie itself, but still the subject of time was the crux of the story.

By far the most heartfelt arc is the Jack Conrad one. Clearly standing for John Gilbert and his tragic career path, Jack’s story is both very moving and highly realistic within the historical context. Brad Pitt’s performance is phenomenal and highly underrated. The fact that his work in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ was lauded and awarded and this much greater performance was brushed aside is ludicrous. He deserves more attention and he was perfectly cast from the beginning.

But the standout definitely has to be Margot Robbie herself. For the most part her role here is reminiscent to all the previous roles in her career, but she still delivered a highly charismatic, powerhouse performance as the instantly memorable Nellie LaRoy. She is one of the two protagonists of the story and by far the most entertaining and striking creation of the bunch.

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The other central character is Manny Torres played by Diego Calva. Calva is a newcomer and he was surprisingly effective as Manny and he has movie star looks and even charisma. The problem here is that the character was supposed to the main one as judged by the opening and the ending focused squarely on him, but he disappeared from the middle of the movie way too often and he was never that well defined to begin with, which resulted in a weak central figure overall.

All the other characters in this huge cast are minor, but some are quite memorable. Jean Smart as the icy columnist is great as she always is. The character of Sidney Palmer also worked in signifying just how racist Hollywood was back then. Li Jun Li is also wonderful as Lady Fay Zhu who is this very potent and intriguing mixture of Anna May Wong and Marlene Dietrich. I just wish she was given more to do here.

Technically, Babylon is impeccable. Justin Hurwitz’ score is one of the best of the year. It’s eclectic and quite energetic, perfectly fitting its time period. The cinematography is also phenomenal and quite kinetic while the production design is gorgeous with many incredible sets and a superb attention to detail in recreating its era. The costumes are also amazing and quite colorful. Couple all of these strong elements with so many wonderful homages to silent cinema and even later films dealing with a similar subject such as ‘Singing’ in the Rain’ and you’ve got a beautiful love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

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Babylon would be among my favorite films of the year had it not been for its uneven quality. This film has very high highs, but also very low lows. Case in point, the extreme depravity and debauchery depicted in the first act in particular during those parties was just unnecessary and plain overwhelming. It is also questionable whether any of this happened at all or at least in some capacity, but the problem here is that even if it happened depicting it so graphically was simply unnecessary. The high delirium and overwhelming visual stimulus that these scenes provided are potent, but still they served more as filler material than true storytelling.

Even worse is that third act’s shift into violent criminal territory with those hellish dungeons and a Toby Maguire character that was so over-the-top and so villainous that he was downright cartoonish. There must have been a better way to depict the downfall of Manny than this ridiculous nonsense. It really diminished the impact of the entire film for me.

But for any one of those problematic sequences, you’ve got another one that was almost brilliant in execution. One is the filming of a silent epic that was exhilarating and epic in its own right. It was a true spectacle in audio-visual delights and chaotic energy. The film showcases that art can erupt from chaos, especially mayhem on set. Another highlight is that powerful finale that was emotional and a great ode to cinema. The comedic standout is Nellie’s first sound filming. It was both hilarious and meticulously detailed.

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