Babylon

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this is FUCKING INSANE.
MUST WATCH.
La La Land turned up to 11
on a constant adrenaline rush
nailed every element of the art that is film

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The first three minutes will leave you questioning everything you are about to see, and what is about to unfold over the next 3 hours. One moment is filled with absurdity with elephants gate crashing sex-filled Gatsby-esc grand parties, and the next is an innocent girl trying to make her way during the golden age and birth of Hollywood. Even the extras, the background acting, and the scene choreography are all thought out, with something always occurring, timing becomes key and it’s executed well, sometimes winning over scenes through pure silliness.

Directed by Damien Chazelle, Whiplash and La La Land, who won Best Director in 2017 for the latter. Babylon carries a lot of thematic similarities from Chazelle’s previous works, crossing reality with questionable dream-like states. Arguablable the score from friend and colleague Justin Hurwitz is considerably similar to their most notable work of La La Land. The pace of this film changes dramatically throughout, from drug-fueled and sex highs to the numbing of personal grief, yet the momentum of life going on regardless is clear to see, not giving the viewer a moment before diving into another theme/plot line or realm.

However, the beauty of Babylon is truly in the detail. Being slammed for being too eccentric and not historically accurate, this film feels more at home by mocking itself and likely unintentionally. Especially with its preaching cinema on the big screen for the masses and end credits that have turned critics against the art form they review. A hypocritical coincidence of an earlier scene, where theatre views cinema as a low art form. The end credit’s themselves, as an edit, are creative but understandably doesn’t add anything to the film without the undertone of “THIS IS FILM, ENJOY IT AT A CINEMA FOR THE TRUE EXPERIENCE”. Leave the film at Manney (Diego Calva) seeing himself portrayed crudely in Singing In The Rain, and let him figure it out for himself just as the audience should of in a subtle way.

Understanding the investment from others to provide something that an audience actually wants is a common theme. From Jack Conard (Brad Pitt) on the downhill stretch of his career, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) undergoing surgeries to kick start hers, and tragically Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) becoming a victim of the institutional racism within Hollywood. This film whether intentionally or not, portrays what an audience seeks out when watching the film, it wants a story worth following, and Babylon gives us multiple stories and multiple intersections.

With the beauty of an ensemble cast, we aren’t relying on anyone one actor or subsequent character to pull us through this marathon movie. The early focus on the trumpet scene endings is a nice character development arc that falls away just as Sydney does from the Hollywood work. The Joker styling of Toby McGuire physically takes us down a rabbit hole, reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic horror freak show.