Babylon Review

December 30, 2022 at 3:03am
By Jason Stettner

This is a very strange sort of film. Babylon takes aim on the unbridled decadence and depravity within the early years of Hollywood while also basking in it. It’s an incredibly lengthy film, honestly being completely bloated. They needed to cut a good hour to hour and a half from the run time as it was brutal to sit through. Saying that, I actually love these sort of films.

The ones that look at what the meaning of cinema is to so many, and the history of the industry. Now with that, this one stands heavily on the shoulders of Singin’ in the Rain and quite honestly it doesn’t hit near the same mark that the classic hits. The story here starts in the 1920’s and follows too many individuals in their progression in being turned out by the industry over decades.

It’s got some high quality talent and uses them effectively, while at the same time not focusing enough on its stars. There are some cross-over moments but it still feels as though it’s multiple movies or even shows going on at once. You have Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) being a top tier star that’s dealing with changing seasons as a main lead. Then you also have Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) who’s basically meant to be a star.

If that’s not enough to follow Manny Torres (Diego Calva) is yet another key focus as he works from the big parties to actually being a focus of the industry for a time. Those are the only ones I’ll focus on however, as there are many other smaller stories going at the same. It’s busy, and like I said quite bloated.

It does deliver on its spectacle with the first hour or so being exciting party action with great moments of excitement. From there it just stretches on and on. The last half hour or so is some overly excessive montage of other movies, it’s weird. The strengths here were of course the performances with the highlighted cast being excellent.

There were even smaller character moments that were rather stunning. They just get lost along the way towards finishing the movie. It’s also quite beautifully shot as a film, using a good presentation that clearly showcases a love for the art form. The music was also top notch but some shots of instruments could have been shot down a bit, but if you’re familiar with the director you’ll understand why they’re here so often.

The Conclusion

Babylon delivers a true love letter to the history of cinema, at the same time it leans heavily on Singin’ in the Rain which it comes nowhere close to touching. It feels like a retread of that narrative while literally using a number of scenes from it. This is excessively lengthy to the point of where even I, someone that typically loves these films found it uncomfortable to take in during a visit to the cinema.

Which is somewhat disappointing as that’s where these sort of films do belong. It’s got some great performances, it has some laughs and it’s largely enjoyable. It just needed some deep trimming and tightening. It also had some weirdly disgusting scenes which stood out, I think there were no limits here which was an issue.

I’m fine with the use of sex, wild drugs and intense over the top action but this movie leaned way too into those aspects without enough purpose to them. I think that’s a big issue, not focusing on a singular concept to flesh it out and instead throwing tons of random scenes together.

Babylon Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by Taro PR

Rating Overall: 6.2