A One Mann’s Movies review of “Babylon” (2023).
I’ve been a big fan of Damien Chazelle’s output. Whiplash (5*), 10 Cloverfield Lane (at least until the last 10 minutes! 3.5*), First Man (5*) and of course La La Land (5*)… the Oscar film that never was! Now, here’s comes his 5th film, “Babylon”. And what a horribly, delightful, rambling, infuriating mess of a movie it is! I’ve found this one REALLY difficult to rate, since I am in so many different minds about it. But in the end I’ve given it…
Bob the Movie Man Rating(s):
Plot Summary:
It’s 1926. Manny Torres (Diego Calva) is a Los Angelenos desperate to get involved in the silent movie business. He’ll do just about anything to get on the set. He gets his wish, being appointed as personal fixer to movie star Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt). He first has to coordinate one of Jack’s crazy and hedonistic parties. There he meets Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie). She’s a wannabe actress who is suddenly ‘discovered’ due to the quality of her acting. But, with “The Jazz Singer” about to premiere in New York, can Jack and Nellie still compete in the world of the ‘talkies’.
Certification:
UK: 18; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Strong sex, nudity, drug misuse”).
Talent:
Starring: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Olivia Wilde, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Tobey Maguire, Katherine Waterston, Samara Weaving.
Directed by: Damien Chazelle.
Written by: Damien Chazelle.
Twitter Handles: #babylonmovie.
Manny (Diego Calva) with influencial film critic Elinor St. John (Jean Smart). (Source: Paramount Pictures).
“Babylon” Review:
Positives:
- There’s no doubting the ambition of Chazelle with this movie. The energy exuded in the opening party scene is just exhausting. There is just SO much going on on the screen at the same time. The choreography and the production design is simply wonderful. And all of this is set to a pumping and exciting jazz soundtrack by Justin Hurwitz, surely a strong Oscar contender.
- I just loved the glimpse into the production of these early silent movies. This is particularly so in two scenes in the first half of the movie:
- The first is on the external backlot of Kinescope Studios where multiple movies are being filmed in parallel. In one bar-room set, Robbie’s Nellie LaRoy stuns the crew with her sexualised dancing and her ability to cry on cue. (“One tear or two?”). She cruelly upstages the star (Samara Weaving). Elsewhere, Pitt’s Jack Conrad is drinking heavily in his tent. He’s dodging wayward spears, while thousands of extras battle away on the plains outside. An extra from skid-row dies: who cares?! (“He must have run into his own spear”). Later Pitt has his star moment, kissing the girl on a hilltop as the sun sets. This would have been an Oscar-showreel moment for Chazelle’s regular cinematographer Linus Sandgren. That is, if he’d made the nomination list (I feel Sandgren was a bit ripped off here).
- The second is a hugely entertaining scene set in a sound studio. Nellie is trying, over multiple excrutiating takes, to get the scene in the can with temperature and tempers rise exponentially. This is very reminiscent of the same type of scene in “Singin’ in the Rain”. (That actually gets shown later in the film.)
- Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie do a great job with their roles. They are said to be loosely based on the silent stars John Gilbert and ‘It girl’ Clara Bow. Margot Robbie’s half-dressed party-dancing is extraordinary. But the guy really carrying the movie is relative newcomer Diego Calva as the Mexican immigrant made good as the studio exec. I was not familiar with any of his previous work. (“Narcos: Mexico” on TV seems to be the most mainstream offering),
- I’ve already mentioned the score by Justin Hurwitz. And it’s no surprise that it’s nominated for the Oscar, and would currently be my tip to win. The jazz numbers are vibrantly delivered with little trumpet motifs (e.g. the one from the trailer) that end up embedded as ear-worms in your mind. There is also a lovely little theme that repeatedly pops up throughout the film. One observation I had is that at one point there is almost a retread of “Somewhere in the Crowd” from Hurwitz’s score for “La La Land”. Given the struggle of Nellie to be ‘discovered’ amongst all the other wannabe’s, perhaps this musical self-plagerism was actually very deliberate?
Negatives:
- Chazelle seems to have had no self-discipline with this movie. At 3 hours and 10 minutes long, the movie outstayed its welcome for me by a good 45 minutes. I will admit that I was pretty well entertained for the first couple of hours. The time flew by for me. But that feeling didn’t last. The last part of the film involves a completely over-the-top Tobey Maguire as gangster James McKay. But it seemed to add little to the overall plot and could easily have been excised completely to reduce the running time. I really started to resent the film at this point. Disappointing, since I should have been enjoying the ending with its celebration of cinema.
- Some of the scenes of excess (particularly in the ‘bunker club’ that McKay takes Matty and ‘The Count’ (Rory Scovel) to) are overdone for those with a sensitive nature. The illustrious Mrs Mann “hated” the more perverse sexual content.
- The ending, set around Manny watching a ‘classic’ and emotionally pondering on his life, is done in the same style at the wonderful ‘Epilogue’ section of “La La Land”. This involves a recapping of the elements of the film and classics from the history of cinema set to swirling colours on the screen. But it all came across as jerky and disjointed where it should have been the highpoint of the movie. The film clips were cut in with simple cuts. Surely it was not beyond the wit of the special effects team to make the images ’emerge’ and ‘dissolve’ from the swirling paint on the screen to create something more satisfying?
Summary Thoughts on “Babylon”
I’ve seen the movie described as a “hot mess”, and I would completely agree. It’s simply brilliant in places. But it’s way too long. Most cinema-goers just don’t have the time and/or the attention span for this length of film. This not only puts people off going but also reduces the number of possible cinema showings. There were just 7 other people in the evening showing I went to. It’s no surprise that – at the time of writing – it’s only approaching $19M at the box office against a $78M budget.
There is no discipline, in my view, to the way the story’s been structured, the editing (nearly every scene is too long) and the way it’s paced (everything dialled up to ’11’). It has NOT been selected as one of the ten films shortlisted for Best Picture. This must be a disappointment for Chazelle.
It has been nominated though for the following Oscars:
- Music – Original Score
- Production Design
- Costume Design
and it probably stands a good chance at all of those.
Trailer for “Babylon”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Q8vjFP08E . Note: that this is the Red Band trailer (18) – discretion advised.
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