Never has a “love letter to cinema” been so obnoxiously pointed as in Damien Chazelle’s latest, Babylon. Before the title even comes up, the leads have already had a drugged-up discussion about how great and oh-so-IMPORTANT films are. This persists on and off throughout the movie, culminating in a pointless epilogue montage that showcases the power of films from the likes of Maya Deren, James Cameron, and, for some reason, more James Cameron. And this is a movie that closes in the ’50s!
That said, the organized chaos director Chazelle pulls off here is nothing short of spectacular. There’s so much going on across so many frames and camera moves. It’s an astounding, enjoyable effort that is, sadly, objectively annoying and indulgent. This dorky little phenom should again receive his La La Land accolades of Best Director and not Best Picture. Babylon is amazing at a lot of levels, but it also needs to shut up. Anything over three hours long could almost always be cut, and this oft-hollow turkey could sure use more carving and stuffing.
The part with Tobey Maguire—an analogue to his Spider-Man 2 co-star Alfred Molina’s scene in Boogie Nights, here the crime-guy’s mania punctuated by spitting instead of firecrackers—rules, though. It would have been fine if that deranged departure was the entire movie and the whole thing was 96 minutes. Nonetheless, it’s a beautifully-done, wonderfully-acted if nearly overwhelming and just as often eye-rolling flick that proves its unasked point of how movies are pretty cool.
Grade: B
Babylon
Director: Damien Chazelle
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Runtime: 189 minutes
Rating: R
Cast: Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jovan Adepo, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, Lukas Haas
