Babylon

Starring: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Eric Roberts, Lukas Haas, Max Minghella, Olivia Wilde, Patrick Fugit, Max Minghella, Samara Weaving, Jeff Garlin, Ethan Suplee, Tobey Maguire, Spike Jonze (uncredited)
Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Comedy
2022

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A fading silent movie star (Brad Pitt) and an up-and-coming talent (Margot Robbie) navigate the extreme excess of Hollywood.

Review:

Tim: Damien Chazelle has had an impressive start to his Hollywood career. Of the three films of his I've seen, I loved two of them (Whiplash and La La Land), and First Man was much better than it seemed. He next turned his attention on the early days of Hollywood, telling a story of excess in the extreme. And, perhaps it's fitting that this film represents a big stumble. Although it's not all bad (by any means), Babylon is by far his least successful film. It's clearly the most flawed. It represented a pretty big failure in 2022, although again, the news isn't all bad.

You have to give Chazelle credit, although there's a shadow side to his ambition here. To direct a sprawling, 3 hour, 9 minute film of excess in the silent era of Hollywood, to track it while it shifts away from silent films to sound- to do this in 2022 was certainly a gamble. Now, to be fair, The Artist tackled a similar subject a few years ago- so this wasn't a revolutionary move. No, Chazelle differentiates his film by the sheer audacity of the scope and scale of it. A 3+ hour dramedy of silent Hollywood. Not many people would attempt that. To some extent, for good reason. It's wild to me that Chazelle sets out to tell a story about excess, and yet, he falls into the exact same trap. His movie is bursting at the scenes with too much. It's all too much. The film is weighed down by Chazelle's own hubris. He has directed great films and he might be a truly great director, but arrogance feels like it fills nearly every scene of this movie. I do believe there was a great film here. Indeed, I believe there was a very good film here and even a good film. And yet, Chazelle blows past all the warning signs, gated roads, barreling forward with more, more more- until he's left with a bizarrely decent yet unsatisfying film. You can only scratch your head in wonder. Had Chazelle cut, had he focused more, this could have been another truly special film. Instead, it's hard to look at Babylon as anything other than an ambitious disappointment.

Indeed, the film's ambition is impressive. Nowhere is this more apparent than the early scene of the lavish Hollywood party. Chazelle is in firm control here, spinning a wildly entertaining, shocking, hedonistic affair that is brilliantly photographed. Margot Robbie is in top form, an energetic firecracker forcing every eye towards her. Chazelle's ability to film dance sequences, his ability to film big moments in a focused way- it's a wonderful, beautiful introduction to this movie. By the time the title shows up, you feel dripped in sweat, disoriented, not sure what you just witnessed. Chazelle made this scene feel so alive. That's the good. Now, for some of the bad- the opening scene of the elephant crapping was unnecessary. Chazelle thinks it sets the stage for excess, but the following scene that does so much better. That's an example of the lacking of editing- that whole opening sequence should have been cut. It doesn't do enough to establish Manny Torres as a character to include it. This will happen again and again throughout the film. Chazelle delivers beautiful, poignant, unforgettable sequences that make you sit up in awe of his directorial talent. And then, he wastes our time with unnecessary, minimally interesting sequences that balloon the run time and yet are empty calories. It gets progressively more frustrating the longer this goes on.

Here's a couple of examples- there's a beautiful sequence of filming a large-scale battle scene. This is contrasted with Manny on an errand to get a camera. Chazelle films these sequential scenes brilliantly. The large-scale affair, with the small, personal objective. The movie moves fast and it progresses multiple characters' storylines brilliantly. There's also a standout sequence of Margot Robbie's character in her first real role, where the director is giving her instructions and she's flat out nailing her performance. It's a showstopping display of Robbie's immense talent and Chazelle's brilliance. There's also a funny and fantastic sequence of Robbie's character filming a sound scene, where nearly everything goes wrong. Unfortunately, the scene goes on far too long, but it's brilliantly executed, humorous, memorable. Even as I list scenes like this, I'm in awe of Chazelle's ability to craft these.

However, the whole movie isn't like this. There's so many filler scenes. There's whole sequences that don't hit the mark and yet take forever to occur. One of the most egregious is the whole affair with Tobey Maguire's character. I loved seeing Maguire here, but nothing about this works. From his (purposely) bad makeup, to the whole subplot- it feels ineffective, unnecessary. Chazelle doesn't deliver great scenes there and yet it goes on and on. There's many other smaller sequences that don't add much, yet waste our time. I got really frustrated at a certain point because of the bloated nature of this film. By doing significantly less, Chazelle could have done much more.

As you might expect, audiences weren't really interested in any of this. The film made a paltry $15 million at the box office, a total of $64 million worldwide. That's a massive flop. The film did receive 3 Academy Award nominations- Best Production Design, Best Original Score, and Best Costume Design. These are worthwhile noms for sure- Chazelle has an eye for detail and the music here is essential for the film. However, the movie didn't win any and I'm not surprised. So, yes, Chazelle's film did receive 3 nominations- that's impressive. But, I don't think it was a real contender and it was a box office failure.

I do feel badly for the cast, because they are not at fault here. Brad Pitt gives one of the better performances of his career. I love that he's leaning into his age a bit these days. He's believable, funny, impressive as this silent film star at the end of his career. His performance is exceptional. Robbie is a revelation, although we're used to that at this point. Robbie pours so much into this performance- it's one of her best, even when some of the notes don't quite connect. Her character gets unnecessarily annoying at times, but I blame Chazelle as the writer, not Robbie. She is one of the most talented actresses working today and she should be nothing but proud about her work here. Diego Calva is shocking because he manages to hold his own against Pitt and Robbie, who are both fantastic. Calva's performance is a bit more uneven, but the fact that he manages to stay close to two of the greatest actors in terms of quality is a major achievement for him. I think we'll be seeing much more of him. These three are the stars and they all deliver great performances.

The supporting cast are relegated to the sidelines. I loved seeing Maguire, although his character and story were among the worst of the film. Max Minghella is good, but it's a small, thankless role. Jean Smart was effective in her role. I liked seeing Olivia Wilde, but she disappears so quickly. Eric Roberts is solid in a purposely unlikable role.

Babylon is definitely a failure of a film, although I do think the many strengths at least make this movie decent. It's the worst Chazelle movie I've seen yet, although I admit much of the movie works. The problem is the excess, the overwhelming aspects of the film that were totally unnecessary. I still like Chazelle a lot, so I'm hoping he doesn't try to shift blame- this film's failure is 100% his fault. He can bounce back and make great movies again. I hope he looks back on this misstep and learns to be better. If his worst movie is this ambitious, flawed, decent film, we could be seeing one of the all-time greats.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: La La Land, Whiplash, First Man, Mother, The Artist, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood....