Babylon

⭐ 9.5/10

(Originally written by Tim)

I saw this movie a couple weeks ago and have been avoiding this review because I have not felt this strongly about a movie in a long time. I did not like the first 45 minutes. It was incredibly indulgent and deranged and depraved, basically a massive party scene. It is staged and filmed in an incredible way, with Chazelle showing off all his tricks, but basically serves to show how disgusting these Hollywood parties were and how everyone is gross. I feel like it is intentionally deplorable, but that didn't make me love watching it.

That's the first 45 minutes. This is a 3 hour movie. The next 30 minutes is maybe one of the best things I have ever seen on screen, with the movie making magic on full display in a bonkers set piece that must have been so so hard to make. The co-ordination with the environment, timing, hundreds of people, that's literally what this scene is about and the beauty at the end of it perfectly reflects how the characters feel in that moment.

And that kind of sums of the movie for me. Stunning moments are all moments of movie magic, where the characters are witnessing the beauty that film can produce while you watch how hours of pain finally create something incredible. It's the ultimate Hollywood loves Hollywood movie... or is it. Because the parts that were hardest to stomach, like the beginning, or the descent into literal Hollywood hell in the final hour, clearly show how much the creator of this movie despises this place.

That is what I couldn't shake most watching this movie, the fact that the guy who made this made 2 of my other all time favourites in Whiplash and La La Land, and also First Man, a great but not loved movie. Whiplash is about the grueling agony it takes to become great. La La Land has that too, but finds joy in love and the magic of Hollywood, only to end in choosing the love of art over the love of another person. At first I thought this movie was the anti La La Land, removing the glowing sheen of the city and replacing it with its dark underbelly, but a couple times in the score (which is 10/10 masterpiece btw) I picked up on very clear La La Land motifs. Its knowingly using the earnest energy of that movie in this one, in which peoples' determination and drive is ugly.

If you have gotten this far, minor spoilers, but the movie I was thinking of the whole time is the all time masterpiece Singin' in the Rain. Several scenes are eerily similar, the most noteable bing the transition from silent film to talkies and how hard the actors found it. That scene is pure Whiplash, where there is no charm in the frustration the artists feel as light and sound and acting come together in an exhaustive display of competing wills. It lacks the wry humour of Singin' in the Rain, replacing it with cutting swear words and anxiety. This is the main example, but there several time where I was like, wait a second...

And then the finale completely embraces it. A character literally sees Singin' in the Rain and realizes that their struggle created something so beautiful. And as they descend into a literal vision of the "magic of cinema" I was completely taken. It recreated the feeling of seeing the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey for the first time, and as corny as it sounds, watching a character witness this magic I also felt it. Singin' in the Rain ends with this glorious vision of heavenly creativity, and this movie somehow made me understand that vision by showing me its counterpoint.

So I feel weak. A movie that's all like, look how disgusting this place is but its all worth it, made me feel like, wow this movie with several intentional gross out moments made me love it at the end. Somehow self referential, somehow referencing every movie made, I was completely swept away by the end.

I haven't said the names Brad Pitt of Margot Robbie yet but they are great, as expected. Pitt is the older actor aging out of being a star, Robbie is the young up-and-comer who takes the industry by storm with her charisma and natural talent. Diego Calva is basically the lead and he is amazing, the immigrant who will do anything to climb the ladder. The score is insane. It flopped at the box office, but almost all masterpieces do. And that's where I think this movie will land in a couple years. It feels like a final takedown of movies as an art form, almost like how Singin' was a joyous birth. If you've read this far I'm sorry that I sound pretentious, I've just been soaking in this movie for a month and have a lot of thoughts.

Definitely not for everyone, but if you can stomach the debauchery of the first 45 minutes the thrill ride is worth it. Singin' in the Rain will never be the same when held up to this funhouse-mirror version of itself. I can't imagine what Chazelle will make next, as this feels like a Magnum Opus on movies as an art form, but this guy has solidified his place in my hall of fame.