Babylon (2022) Review
Is Damien Chazelle's Hollywood Epic A Triumph or A Flop? Plus, Falling Out of Love With A Podcast
It really says something that I’m giving this a negative rating, when it contains multiple sequences that are some of the most electric of the year. But then it just keeps going on, and on, until at some point it becomes extremely obvious how much of a fucking mess this thing is. Chazelle just so overstuffs the film by saying so many different things, it ends up saying nothing. By the time you get the third act, which takes a lot of big swings, you realize the film hasn’t earned any of it.
Such a shame, too, given the earlier incredible sequences. Turns out watching movies get made is a lot of fun, but the rest of the institution has always probably deserved to be burnt to the ground.
Also, if you want an infinitely better love letter to Hollywood and movie-making, watch the Coen Brothers’ “Hail, Caesar,” or Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.”
2/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️
Watched this partly with The Big Picture commentary, which was so bad I unsubscribed from the podcast, then watched the last hour of the film by itself, which was an excruciating experience.
Outside of two sequences, Nellie’s first big day and the debut of sound, which are incredible as thesis statements in getting across what I think what writer/director Damien Chazelle was going for, I think this movie is mostly quite awful.
The big day illustrates the magic of making movies, in that it’s almost entirely unbridled chaos and anarchy that is all worth it when you get a glimpse of unexpected brilliance, like a stunning acting debut, or a butterfly landing at the perfect time against a golden hour sunset.
The debut of sound is again about the unbridled chaos and anarchy that is making a movie, and there’s no real payoff. You just get progressively more angry at each other until you get to go home, somebody dies, or both. This is what art mostly is. A job you do for money, and that’s it. There’s no unexpected brilliance, you just get the work done, send it out, move on to the next thing. By the way, PJ Byrne is far and away the MVP of the film for his performance in this scene. It’s incredible comedic work.
Problem is, these two fairly early sequences are the only time the film feels energetic with a purpose. The rest of the time it just feels energetically annoying, like it just chugged 8 Red Bulls and is reciting to you the lurid contents of a Kenneth Anger or Bret Easton Ellis book.
There’s certainly a way to portray the behind closed doors, or barely shut bacchanal doors, and it’s not a grand twenty minute opening spectacle showing an elephant shitting on the audience, followed closely by Fatty Arbuckle being pissed on and being involved in that person’s death, followed in short order by the tragic life of Anna May Wong. I get that two different lives and stories like that can happen at the same party, but on the other hand, it just feels like Chazelle went to the buffet and said “Yes” to the question of what would you like to eat first.
Not only does the film do a disservice to the more tabloid stuff, which just feels like shock value and exploitation in context, but also to the human tragedy Chazelle wants us to see in characters like Anna May Wong. And I realize he changed most of the people’s names to have artistic liberty, but a more successful film would also mine a meta-layer of tragedy in drawing the line from the fake characters to the real people.
This film wants to be both a love letter and suicide note to Hollywood, but in practice, just like Nellie’s first script of dialogue she has to learn, the writing is stained to the point of being almost completely illegible outside of the two these sequences.
By the way, I was so disappointed in The Big Picture’s commentary because Sean Fennessey is supposed to be a noted defender of this film, and instead of explaining why the film is actually good on the commentary, he just does what The Big Picture podcast usually does, which is devolve into kayfabe playful ribbings and in-jokes with the co-hosts? It’s very bizarre, and very antithetical to Sean’s supposed mission statement about saving cinema and advocating for the medium.
Honestly, I should have unsubscribed long ago for the podcast not being what I want it to be, but alas like “Babylon,” it’s sometimes easier to focus on the few good moments, as opposed to the thirty minutes when Tobey Maguire is leading you deeper into barely metaphorical version of Hollywood as hell. Seriously, we get it Damien, I don’t need to keep going ad nauseam to make this movie three hours long.
1.5/5 Stars
⭐️✨
Ranked:
#5/#5 in “Damien Chazelle, Ranked”
