Brooklyn Babylon

Brooklyn Babylon is Marc Levin's 2001 film about the African American and Jewish community in Brooklyn, N.Y. Set in Crown Heights, the story revolves around Sara, a young Jewish girl and Solomon, an African American aspiring to become a musician. After their cars collide in a sudden car accident, Sara and Solomon lock eyes and develop an instant connection. After their second encounter, the two begin to see each other and its not soon before long until their friends and family disapprove. Eventually violence between their friends ensues and it seems that the more these two fall in love, the harder it is to maintain their budding romance. Gradually, Solomon exposes Sara to a whole new world outside of her Jewish faith which forces her to question her beliefs. Over all, Brooklyn Babylon is a pretty solid movie. Although the film is somewhat cliché, it is still easy to watch. Instead of violence, the film could've had a break through with less violence and more camaraderie between the characters. Marc Levin highlights the cultural backgrounds of the characters in a very profound way. In addition, the acting of the two leads is fairly decent. Watch out for some good musical performances by the roots.

:In the troubled neighborhood of Crown Heights in the Borough of Churches, a sheltered Jewish Girl -- Karen Starc -- and a Black rapper -- Tariq Trotter -- fall in love.

Despite some issues with the location shooting -- one sequence shot in the subway shows one of the Canal Street stations as clean as my grandmother's kitchen after the pre-Passover cleaning -- it's a lovely modernized version of the Romeo & Juliet story, with many references to Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; indeed, Trotter's character is named Solomon. There's a nice sociological undertone of each culture struggling to maintain its identity that plays nicely into the story, with Trotter's efforts to come to some understanding of the deep love he feels for the lady, and Miss Starc trying to calm her hot-headed relative, played by David Vadim.

First of all, I'd like to reply to one of the reviewers (Kastellos) who dismisses hip-hop music as cheap and says that hip-hop artists become successful only on luck. Well, I'd like to inform him/her that The Roots are one of the most revered bands not only in the hip-hop world, but internationally, since they blend soul, hip-hop, rhythm'n'blues; their songs have been used for the soundtrack of dozens of movies and one of them topped the charts in 2002.

The Roots are a solid band, and it shows right from the beginning of the movie, when they perform one of the best songs of the soundtrack, a track a lot more mature and layered than your "average" hip-hop track.

I borrowed the DVD from the library mainly because of the soundtrack, and I have to admit it's what saves an altogether messy movie.

The actors are barely beyond amateurish, Karen Starc is very pretty but she definitely needs more acting lessons, like most of the cast (with the exception of Bonz Malone and David Vadim).

The story of the clash between black and Jewish communities could have been told much better with a better script and cast. Some "documentary" takes give a flavor of reality, but the movie falls in many ways.

All in all, a mediocre movie saved by a great soundtrack.

On a lot of levels this movies comes after several other films that belong in the same genre...do the right thing, save the last dance, romeo and juliet...etcetera...but all films take from other films and all are designed to showcase something new against something familiar...for me it was the fact there is such a tension in the city...and how against such a huge mess, ppl still have unique and personal problems to solve.... I also though this film was very well shot, i loved the way they used the pull focus technique throughout and let the camera get intimate with the characters during the scenes... I loved the music and thought that was brilliant how it showcased their talents without it being a "concert movie" good rental, would recommend it... agreed, that I would like to see the lead actors in a more demanding story...

I agree with the last reviewer that the best thing about this film is the fact that it features DA ROOOOOOTS!!! Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter stars as an up and coming MC of an organic hip hop band.... basically he does a fine job playing a character based on himself. Karen Goberman is also good as the female lead, although their relationship isn't very well written, which holds true for the writing as a whole. Everything about the film except for the performances feels contrived.... their relationship, the tension between the Black and Jewish communities that it's set against (even with the understanding that these tensions are very real). I'd like to see Tariq and The Roots working on other films.... hopefully next time they'll have a better script to work with.