Babylon - Review

 

In this age of sequels, reboots, remakes, adaptations, and franchises, the phrase “go big or go home” becomes more and more understandable with each wunderkind director getting to make their big-budget original film. Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash,” “La La Land”) isn’t exactly a subtle filmmaker, but even by his standards, “Babylon” certainly is the biggest (and the most) movie he’s made yet.

Set in the late 1920s, specifically during the transition from silent films to talkies, the film follows an ensemble cast of Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya,” “Birds of Prey”) as Nellie LaRoy, an aspiring film actress, Diego Calva (“Narcos: Mexico,” “I Promise You Anarchy”), as Manny Torres, an assistant who dreams of a larger role in the film industry, Brad Pitt (“Bullet Train,” “Ocean’s Eleven (2001)”) as Jack Conrad, an aging silent film star, Li Jun Li (“Quantico,” “Wu Assassins”) as Lady Fay Zhu, a burlesque singer and title card artist, Jovan Adepo (“Overlord,” “When They See Us”) as Sidney Palmer, a trumpet player for various Hollywood parties, and Jean Smart (“Hacks,” “Designing Women”) as Elinor St. John, a sensationalist journalist for various Hollywood magazines.

At three hours long and featuring a moment involving an elephant and some feces that would make the Jackass guys blush in the first ten minutes, “Babylon” makes a very specific statement right at the start: this ain’t gonna be a movie for everyone. It’s extravagant nature and large-scale story might seem like the kind of tale that could be enjoyed by all, but as Damien himself put it “this is a love letter to cinema and a hate letter to Hollywood.” It sticks to its guns the entire way though, never faltering from this very specific viewpoint and tone. If nothing else, it’s consistent and committed to its vision.

Robbie is absolutely incredible. This is easily the performance of her career, a character of impeccable excess and emotional distress, constantly battling with herself and her dream job, with her dreams and the studio forcing her into a box to attempt to achieve those dreams. She’s powerful in virtually every scene, consistently hilarious, and an enigmatic beauty that seems destined to live in the minds of her film’s audiences forever. Diego is also excellent, and while more nuanced of a performance than Robbie’s, he nevertheless proves to be an equally compelling character as he delves through various moral dilemmas in his quest for recognition in the industry he loves.

Pitt is also great, although his character has various shades of other films in his storyline making him just a bit less compelling compared to the others. Adepo is an absolute heartbreaking delight, as he’s clearly one of the smartest people in the room most of the time with no one to actually take him seriously. As Sidney’s takes off, the tale turns sour in ways unexpected but always grounded thanks to Adepo’s performance. The same goes for the absolute scene-stealer that is Jun Li, completely running away with the film despite being in a fraction of it. She, like Robbie, perfectly balances the emotional core of her arc with the film’s extravagant excess to fantastic results.

“Babylon” is also the kind of movie wherein every performance shines through. It’s a true ensemble piece in that way. Olivia Hamilton (“First Man,” “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot”) might only be onscreen for fifteen minutes as LaRoy’s longtime director Ruth Adler, but she nevertheless feels like a featured player thanks to the fantastic script from Chazelle and the blood, sweat, and tears each actor pours into their performances.

Chazelle’s script, like the film’s graphic content, definitely isn’t for everyone. It’s proudly unsubtle, but not in a dumb way. Alternatively, it feels like he felt as though, given the excess of Hollywood, subtly has no place in a story like this. Therefore, plenty of moments, including the heartbreaking climax of Sidney Palmer’s arc, are presented with hardly any subtlety or pomp and circumstance. It’s in those very specific moments where Chazelle allows the music, the glitz and glamour to fade away and leave just his actors and their material to make a statement. Even in the end, after the much-discussed final montage, the last thing you see isn’t the montage, it’s Manny’s face staring off into the distance, telling us everything we need to know.

Regardless of your thoughts on the film’s content, the technical aspects are ridiculously excellent. This is yet another movie from Chazelle score by Justin Hurwitz (“La La Land,” “Whiplash”) and his thumping music not only serves to frame the film’s flamboyant moments well, but also provide a great score for the softer moments. With a slow organ grinder sound, it feels like a cool glass of water in the midst of the hot sweaty events of the rest of the film.

Shot by Linus Sandgren (“No Time to Die,” “La La Land”), the film’s cinematography has a similar effect, going for plenty of quick and crazy movements where appropriate, and dialing into a more intimate, claustrophobic style when needed. It frames the film’s incredible sets and costumes with a gold-colored glasses and feels like a window into a bygone era in the best way.

That window gets progressively more cracked as things go on, and it becomes very clear what kind of movie Chazelle is making here. A tale about love, so often it puts its characters on display dealing with rejection and their intense love of their art in various ways. Some will stumble and fall and succeed, but it never doesn’t feel genuine.

There’s just something intoxicating about a film like this, and if you’re in its target demographic, it can feel like a borderline hypnotic experience. To editorialize for a moment, at one point about two-thirds in, a character walks into a tunnel and my screening glitched for a moment. However, I don’t actually know if that was a glitch or if that was an intentional moment from Chazelle to punctuate the transition into the world within this tunnel. But the fact that I even for a moment thought that was a possibility speaks to the kind of film he’s crafted.

“Babylon” is a divisive film with an incredibly specific vision and an impossibly intoxicating vibe. It’s hard to say if Chazelle’s entire career has been building to this moment, but this feels like a response to someone watching “La La Land” and saying to him “Now tell me how you really feel.” Robbie is giving the best performance of her career, and the entire rest of the cast headlines a movie with incredible technical merits and storytelling flare. If nothing else, this is an uncompromised film from a director who’s earned it in such a short time. Whether or not it’s for you, only you can say. But there isn’t a film like it this year and hasn’t been in quite some time. 5/5