Babylon is a big, crazy, messy, glorious movie. It paints an eye-opening, alarming, sometimes awe-inspiring, and sometimes horrifying look at Hollywood during the late 1920s and early 1930s, featuring a large group of characters whose lives are all drastically changed during their time in the film industry. It aims to do so much over three hours that some may feel like it's an unwieldy mass of contradictions and clashing tones, but for those who can get on the film's wavelength, it's incredible.
It's rare for a movie with such a huge budget to feel this ambitious and thrillingly unique, and for that reason, Damien Chazelle's latest is worth celebrating. Babylon's a comedy and a tragedy, a dream and a nightmare, and a love letter to/condemnation of cinema all at once. It's also the greatest movie of 2022, even if critics and audiences were less than enthusiastic about it. However, like many misunderstood classics that came before, Babylon will only get better with age, and these are the reasons why.
10 The Visuals
A Feast for the Senses
Even those who don't get on board with Babylon's narrative or message will likely admit that it's a visual feast. It's a fantastic-looking movie from the first frame to the last, with remarkable attention to detail when it comes to sets and costumes, its impressive scale, fantastic lighting and use of color, and kinetic, thrilling camerawork.
It all comes together to make something that's consistently varied and exciting to marvel at, and not a scene goes by that doesn't show something beautiful - or stomach-churning - to look at. Damien Chazelle's been behind spectacular-looking movies before, but Babylon marks a career high point when it comes to direction, production design, and cinematography.
9 The Amazing Score
Courtesy of Justin Hurwitz's Genius
Along with the visuals, Babylon's music is similarly easy to praise and certainly one of the film's least divisive elements. The score was composed by Justin Hurwitz, who's worked with Chazelle on all his feature films, including Whiplash, La La Land, and First Man (though with Whiplash, much of the music featured wasn't written for it).
Just like Chazelle, Hurwitz has been consistently great, but his work on Babylon's score is the best he's done in his career so far. It's an immaculate, exciting, and unpredictable score, expertly establishing several key themes early on and consistently reworking and remixing them throughout the film's extensive runtime. Babylon also uses sound extremely well in general, with several key sequences omitting it altogether to great effect (appropriate, given it's a movie about silent movies).
8 The Cast
Especially Diego Calva and Margot Robbie
Babylon was likely relying on its cast to get viewers into seats. Margot Robbie is an immensely popular actress, but for whatever reason wasn't enough to get people flocking to see the film. It's their loss because Robbie gives one of the best performances of her career and is magnetic whenever she's on-screen.
Beyond them, Diego Calva plays the film's central character and is just as great as his more famous co-star. Calva, being less famous, also works for the film, given his character, Manny, is also new to the film industry. Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, and Li Jun Li all shine in supporting roles, and elsewhere, there are a ton of fun appearances from people who are only in a scene or two, including Tobey Maguire, Samara Weaving, and Olivia Wilde.
7 The Editing and Pacing
Making a 3+ Hour Film Feel Manageable
Yes, Babylon is very long. At 189 minutes, it's one of the longest movies of the past few years, up there with other three-hour 2022 releases like Avatar: The Way of Water and RRR. But it truly uses that length to its advantage, covering a lot of ground and depicting the lives of numerous characters.
Some may find the runtime excessive, but the movie is about excess, so it feels appropriate. And while Babylon is long, it's anything but slow, with energy that often feels manic and relentless thanks to its excellent pacing and ferocious editing. There are plenty of montages that get across tons of information very fast, making this one 3+ hour movie that doesn't feel nearly as long.
6 A Unique Mix of Genres
Comedy and Tragedy Go Hand in Hand
Babylon leaps between comedy and tragedy at a remarkable speed. It's a movie about outrageous behavior and spectacular parties, filled with absurd sights and gross-out humor. It also finds comedy in the difficulties of filmmaking, with many extended sequences early on showing the madness behind the scenes being hilarious and entertaining.
Yet, it never forgets about the darker side of the industry, and for every moment of levity, there's one of despair or horror. It finds time to show the tragedy of how Hollywood can chew people up and spit them out, and through spending so much time with these characters, it's easy to become attached, making some of their tragic fates hit even harder when Babylon decides to get serious.
5 The Script
An Unpredictable, Wicked Story
Just as the tone of Babylon leaps frantically between funny and sad, so too does the film jump around a great deal between themes. Due to the wild twists and turns the story takes, Babylon feels extra chaotic, offering a hectic collection of characters and stories that both repel and enthrall.
At times, it's fast-paced and tense, like a thriller. As the story reaches darker places, it begins to incorporate elements of the crime genre, and one extended sequence with Tobey Maguire's unsettling character makes Babylon temporarily feel like a horror movie. The wild, changing screenplay keeps things exciting and surprising and is a big reason why Babylon can get away with being so lengthy.
4 The Unrestrained Approach
It Doesn't Hold Back
When Babylon wants to be gross, it's unafraid to be truly disgusting. Some of the comedy feels like it could be at home in a shock/gross-out teen movie; for example, the opening sequence featuring copious amounts of elephant poop covering one unfortunate character (and the camera) sets the scene for things to come.
Beyond the gross-out comedy, Babylon's refusal to shy away from the horrors of filmmaking in the 1920s/1930s also works in the film's favor. It's a surprisingly violent film and highlights the physical danger of filmmaking. Babylon also depicts the racism of the industry in a way that doesn't pull any punches and is intentionally uncomfortable to watch.
3 The Gloomy Tone
A Dark Look at Hollywood
Hollywood might not be as bad today as it was in the silent era, but it's certainly not as glamorous as people may have you believe. Although far from the first movie to depict the darker side of the film industry, Babylon portrays Hollywood in a truly visceral way that makes it stand out from other movies with a similar message.
Trends come and go in the industry, and when someone's no longer bankable, they're shown to be discarded callously. It's an industry with continual rises and falls, being a vicious cycle for those within it, and one that Babylon also reveals as being extra difficult for women and people of color.
2 The Message at Its Core
It's a Celebration of Movies
While Babylon condemns the film industry, it also celebrates the power of movies. At first, this condemnation and celebration feel at odds. While the industry hurts people, characters speak about how much films matter to them and their audiences. There's triumph shown in finally getting a particularly difficult shot. Some scenes set in cinemas show characters in awe of groundbreaking movies they're watching (like 1927's The Jazz Singer).
Babylon argues that there's a true sense of magic in cinema and that the end product can be an awesome thing to witness. It's an industry where sacrifices are made: some understandable, but many inexcusable. Babylon challenges its audience by making them grapple with the wonders of film and the horrors of filmmaking, asking a similar question to the one at the center of Whiplash: if great art requires dedication and sacrifice, how much is too much?
1 The Ending
Bold, Chaotic, and Unforgettable
Much of Babylon comes to a head in its bold, bizarre, and powerful ending. It reckons with the past, Babylon's present, and the future, all at once through a series of hyper-edited, bittersweet montages. It looks back and looks ahead all at once and can feel overwhelming in the best way possible.
It's in the film's final moments that Babylon's condemnation and celebration of cinema collide violently. It feels unexpected and odd but also perfectly at home with the rest of Babylon at the same time. The best scene featuring Jean Smart's character had her talking about how films will outlive everyone who worked on them. Babylon's end sequence is an extension of that, depicting her character's sentiments visually and viscerally.
Babylon is available to stream on Paramount+