Say hello to one of 2022’s most polarising films – it’s not difficult to see why, with its lengthy runtime, belligerent vulgarity, and understandably divisive ending. It’s a big swing; most of Babylon is. Your mileage may vary, depending on how those swings land. For me, the hits are enough to make up for the misses.
Epic in scale, with extravagant production and sprawling yet tight writing, the film is set in 1920s Hollywood. It follows an ensemble of characters during the silent era and the transition to talking pictures. Our leads are ambitious assistant Manny (Diego Calva) and aspiring actress Nellie (Margot Robbie). Others include acting legend Jack (Brad Pitt), trumpeter Sidney (Jovan Adepo), and singer Fay (Li Jun Li). All are dynamic and engaging. You cannot fault Babylon’s performances: Calva is endearing and pitch-perfect; Robbie is maddening and heart-breaking; Pitt is charming in all the right ways; Adepo and Li are complete scene-stealers.
A bacchanal, complete with an elephant shitting on the camera and a golden shower (yes, really), is our opening and is where Manny and Nellie first meet. Not much connects them other than their Hollywood aspirations. Manny is dedicated yet lacks confidence. Nellie is brash, a self-declared star despite never having been in a movie. Friendship blossoms against a backdrop of debauched partying and cocaine snorting. It’s a tender start to their relationship, reminiscent of director Damien Chazelle’s La La Land.
Dissonance is characteristic of Babylon, and while there’s much talk of its crassness, the most tedious parts are the shocking ones – not to imply such scenes are dull! They’re entertaining to watch, deftly filmed and accompanied by Justin Hurwitz’s energetic score. They make up too much of the runtime, but it’s a dismissal of the film’s core to fixate on them. Babylon’s true magic comes from its incongruity; it’s a feature, not a bug, and necessary to reflect the film’s conflict. As others say, Babylon is a love letter to cinema and a hate letter to Hollywood. It’s an attempt at reconciling an age-old tension: namely, the creative spirit of artists against the commodifying grind of industry.
Thanks to the ending, some paint Babylon as a lesser Singin’ in the Rain. To only understand Babylon as a film about the advent of ‘talkies’ is to ignore a swathe of it. Nor is it a Nicole Kidman AMC ad, as others suggest. The concern of Babylon is not dwindling cinema numbers. Rather, it is the question of how to weigh Hollywood’s dehumanising sins against the immortal art it has produced. You may not agree with Chazelle’s answer (I’m not sure I do), but misunderstanding the question is a shame.
Babylon is not flawless, and, as previously mentioned, you may find its swings miss more than hit. Still, it is worth watching because it has the guts to wear its heart on its sleeve. Better a film do that and fail than hesitate or rely on legacy sequel status. Babylon is, at least, a statement – and a fascinating, thrilling one at that.
Image Credit: “Margot Robbie” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.