Babylon - Rausch der Ekstase

So I just finished watching Babylon.

I really liked it but I hated it. I was bored but I was entertained. It was an emotional rollercoaster and it was plain like the Great Salt Lake. It was clear but it was confusing. It was happy and it was sad.

OMG what a mess!! Not necessarily and not always a bad mess, just a mess - there's a lot going on in this movie, and throughout this complicated web of moving pictures and sounds comes through a story, I think, but I'm not sure.

The whole movie rests on a feeble script, and that's not good, but there's some decent acting, half-decent cinematography (kudos to the crew for managing to navigate through in tight closed quarters with hundreds of naked and clantily clothed people around) and some absolutely fantastic music! In fact, I rated this movie 4 stars, but added 2 for the score - it's mesmerizing! Just do me a favour and be patient through the entire credits, at the very end you'll hear Justin Hurowitz's New York!

Big budget, big actors, huuuge production, but really not much to write home about. Did I waste 3 hours of my life? Not really, yes for sure. Confusing.

Whether it be orgies, showcasing various bodily fluids, plot threads, or the runtime of the film, Damien Chazelle is fully unrestrained in his latest film. La La Land and Whiplash are some of my favorite films and I'm a big fan of Chazelle's directorial style. He shows flashes of that brilliance often throughout Babylon, but does indulge in his most extreme tendencies as well in this modern Hollywood epic.

There is a lot I liked here. The opening sequence is a sight to behold and had me mesmerized with its vibrant energy. The film chugs along at a good pace for the next two hours to the point I really didn't feel the runtime for most of it. It's the last hour or so where Chazelle loses the story a bit. There were several instances where I thought the film was over, but another scene would pop up next. The runtime really feels unnecessary and there's honestly whole plot lines that could be cut out that wouldn't affect the film.

Justin Hurwitz has composed another terrific score (with some nice hints of La La Land) and the photography, costumes, and production design are all stellar. Outside of some shoddy editing, especially a bizarre movie montage at the end that really did not gel, the technical aspects of the film are quite an achievement.

Chazelle really needed someone to tell him no with this film. Some better editing combined with some self-restraint and this would be much closer to the epic masterpiece status he's clearly aiming for. As it stands, it's a pretty entertaining tale of excess and fame in early years of Hollywood.

Babylon is a long, messy, repulsive, and magnetic spectacle. Unfortunately despite the great performances and set pieces it doesn't live up to Chazelle's previous work.

The movie wants to bring you down into the waste yard that is Hollywood then pull you out to see the beauty that grows out of the trash. The problem is the movie spends so much time in the mud, and goes so deep into it that by the time it tries to pull you out at the end it's too late.

On the upside the cast are great and almost completely carry the movie, especially Margot Robbie's enthralling performance as Nellie. And as with Chazelle's previous work the set pieces are well executed and (some) characters are memorable.

However, these positives could not completely overcome the movie's fundamental flaws which are -- going too far with trying to revolt the audience (to the point of childishness), not spending enough time with the characters or important scenes despite its decadent runtime, and the ending coming off as completely pretentious in the context of how practical/cynical everything leading up to it was.

In the end, Babylon does serve its purpose as an entertaining spectacle, but like the Hollywood it critiques, its self-indulgence prevents it from achieving greatness.

...and I wish I could rate them separately. The first act of the film is a fast paced tale of innocence cast into a world of debauchery. It's a beautifully shot, fantastic tale showing the dramatized excesses of show business and the people who would do anything to gain entry into that world. 9/10

The second act was a somewhat more tame and methodical tale of the inner-workings of 1920's film production, with the standout scene being the "hello college" scene. Out of place however, was the whole tangent around the party leading up to the snake. While decidedly funny, I didn't like the pacing very much. 6/10

The final act was a tricky one, and probably could have been 30 minutes shorter. Despite absolutely loving Toby's character, the little side-quest they go on pushed to already exaggerated "Babylonian" theme to to a point of absurdity. It's obvious that some sort of narrative bridge was needed to set up the final scene, but I felt it was overdone. Pitt's character arc wasn't bad, but it lost a lot of steam and I honestly wouldn't have noticed if his character had only been mentioned in the pre-credits sequence. 4/10

If there is one strong point throughout the entire film, it's the use of the dueling saxophone score and quick cuts to drive home the manic energy present throughout the film. Without that score many of the slapstick-heavy scenes would have felt tiresome in an already very lengthy movie. I have a hard time recommending this film to any but the most serious of film nuts, but it's impossible to deny that the bones of a great story are here, they just needed to leave some of the fat on the cutting room floor.

After an "interesting" opening scene about our main character Manny (Diego Calva) trying to get an elephant up to a party in Bel-Air, Babylon floors the gas pedal and barely comes up for air for the rest of the run time. I wanted to credit Damien Chazelle and his team for providing a unique experience in regards to pacing, setting and tone. The expression "fever dream" is overused but Babylon is captured in such a chaotic and constantly shifting way that kept me enraptured. The movie looks fantastic and even if you don't have an interest in this period of cinema, I don't doubt that Babylon will still pull you in. The costuming and sets are dynamic and show how disorganized and tumultuous early Hollywood was. I was hooked from the get-go and for all the movie's flaws, its presentation is vibrant and fast-moving to keep help you entertained.

While Babylon is distinctive with its look and pacing, when it comes to the characters, things are a little more familiar. Conrad and LaRoy are loosely based on a couple of people from that era but the lessons the movie wants to teach us about Hollywood chewing up and spitting out talent are pretty routine. I think Babylon is effective at getting those across but I was a little let down that the movie starts so bombastically and then quietly tip toes into conventionality by the end. Some characters are meant to be less distinctive (Manny is the audience avatar for example) but while I wish they were a little more fresh, I did want to follow them throughout the length of the movie.

Damien Chazelle has enough of a name now that he could probably get any actor/actress he wanted in his cast. He still attracted some big and interesting names for Babylon. I think every member of the main cast did a fantastic job and it's a credit to them and Chazelle for getting the most out of his performers. Brad Pitt's the biggest name and I really enjoyed the work he put in as Jack Conrad. He's appropriately funny in Conrad's lush and over-the-top behaviour but he garners some genuine sympathy for him when the world turns against him. Pitt could have played it so big that he came off as an entitled prick but there's some warmth and passion to Conrad and Pitt gets that across. I've always liked Margot Robbie and she's on point here as Nellie. She throws herself into it completely, there's a surprising amount of physicality and nuance in Nellie's whirlwind behaviour. Much like Pitt, she's really funny when she is given the opportunity to be. Despite the pretty telegraphed arc for her character, you understand why Manny can't resist Nellie even when it's crystal clear she's bad news wrapped in pretty packaging. I would hope that Pitt and Robbie both get awards consideration for their work here. Diego represents the audience, he's witnessing all the craziness and has to go along with it. He's a pretty blank slate but there's enough from Diego that his character is distinct and you understand his motivations. I want to credit Li Jun Li and Jovan Adepo as Lady Fay Zhu and Sidney Palmer respectively. Their characters are written with a heavy hand but both are sympathetic and have their respective moments. The oddest casting is Tobey Maguire as threatening mobster James McKay but Maguire's surprisingly good at being a creepy underworld figure.

Getting to the negatives, Babylon is a movie that indulges in the exact same vices that it's lambasting. As a film, Babylon's determined to show all excess and hedonism of the era in all its "glory." I appreciated some of this but there are moments where the movie gets pretty gross (there's an early scene involving a elephant that is going to shock people) and while I get what Chazelle and his team are trying to show, was it really necessary? I'd argue not. Babylon's lengthy run time is also going to drive some people away but it also has an affect on how the story twists and turns. Characters that started out with more depth gradually turn more generic (Nellie specifically comes to mind) and you could have easily trimmed some of the fat off this movie. The total length of Babylon feels a little self-indulgent and while the previously mentioned frenetic pace keeps you guessing, it saps some of the ending's impact. I got what the movie was trying to say with its wrap-up but I can't deny I was bouncing in my seat in anticipation of getting to leave.

Just like the lavish and insane partying that Babylon presents, you have to choose to take the hit of whatever your poison of choice is and dive in headfirst or not to indulge and slip out the back. Babylon is going to be an incredibly polarizing film and while I enjoyed large parts of this movie, there were also many scenes that fell flat for me. I'd grade Babylon somewhere between a 7 and an 8 but I'm rounding up because there are moments where Babylon has some real cinematic magic. I'm not comfortable wholesale recommending Babylon, if you're interested in a Wolf of Wall Street style comedy about the excess of Hollywood in the 1920s that gets pretty dark, check it out.