By: Andrew Wing

Babylon is a 2022 American epic period comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land, First Man). The film features an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt (Fight Club, Inglourious Basterds), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), Diego Calva (Narcos: Mexico), Jean Smart (A Simple Favor, Mare of Easttown), Jovan Adepo (mother!, Overlord), and Li Jun Li (Wu Assassins).

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, the plot chronicles the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood as it transitions from silent to sound films in the late 1920s.

Chazelle began developing the film in July 2019, with Lionsgate as the frontrunner to acquire the project. It was subsequently announced that Paramount Pictures had acquired worldwide rights in November 2019. Much of the main cast joined the project between January 2020 and August 2021, and filming took place in Los Angeles from July to October 2021.

Babylon premiered in Los Angeles on December 15, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 23, 2022, by Paramount Pictures. It received five nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and nine nominations at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture.

THE GOOD

Holy shit, I cannot believe I am finally writing this review! For those who don’t know me, it should be stated that Damien Chazelle is my favorite living director right alongside Denis Villeneuve. I think Whiplash is a perfect film and La La Land is one of my all-time favorites. The 37-year-old New England native is just on another level when it comes to filmmaking and when I heard his next film would be an epic period drama that was about Hollywood transitioning from silent to sound films in the late 1920s, I was f**king ecstatic! Throw in the fact that the film was being headlined by Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, and I knew I was going to have to see this the first chance I had! Well, I did, but did it live up to my otherworldly expectations? Keep reading to find out!

It most definitely did! As previously said, Chazelle is my favorite director working today and what he gave us here just continues to make me love him even more. Everything he does in Babylon is incredible, and there is just nobody on his level right now in my opinion. His detail to all of the crafts here is out of this world and this is one of the most energetic films I’ve ever seen. I was on the edge of my seat for over three hours and that is all credit to Chazelle’s filmmaking skills. There are just so many unforgettable scenes here that are among my favorite scenes of the year and I just continue to be blown away by Chazelle. This movie is insane and crazy and he was trying to make a maximalist comedy that also has great dramatic moments and he delivered without a doubt. That said, he is more than deserving of a Best Director nomination but I’m skeptical if he’ll get it, unfortunately.

The other great thing about Chazelle is that he writes original screenplays for all of his films aside from his 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, and I was blown away by his screenplay here. I will watch any movie that is actually about the making of movies, but this particular time period in Hollywood when they transitioned from silent films to talkies is so interesting and I love that he focused on that era. The story we got was fantastic and it is one that everyone can connect to as it is mainly about a man who wants to be a part of something bigger that will make him be remembered. All in all, Chazelle gave us amazing dialogue in this, and I hope this can somehow snag a Best Original Screenplay nomination because he is deserving of that too.

Onto the performances in Babylon, we have to start with the star of the show, and that is Margot Robbie. Robbie plays the aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy, and she delivers hands down one of the best performances of the year, and I think the best performance of Robbie’s young but already illustrious career. She does everything you can think of from yelling, crying, screaming, to dancing. She just does things in this movie that I have never seen before and her performance strengthens the case that she is arguably the best actress working right now. You could really make the case that she should win Best Actress for her performance here, but the competition this year is ridiculous, but that said, she still better get nominated, or else I’ll have to riot.

The second-best performance in Babylon belongs to a new face for me, Diego Calva, who gave what can only be called a star-in-the-making performance. As epic and outlandish as this movie was, I felt like whenever we came to Calva’s character, Manny Torres, the movie instantly became more grounded. A lot of that was because of how likable his character was, but I can’t say enough good things about Calva’s performance here. I was just so taken aback by the subtleties of Calva’s performance and how much he as an actor could convey with simply a single glance. All of the character’s emotions were in Calva’s eyes from start to finish and it was truly amazing. That said, I really really want Calva to get a Best Actor nomination, but something tells me even if he doesn’t, he will have more chances down the line.

As for that other dude in the film who you might have heard of, Brad Pitt, well he was pretty damn good too. He plays a character who we have definitely seen before in films like Sunset Boulevard, Singin’ in the Rain, and most recently, The Artist, but I loved Pitt’s performance here. Brad Pitt has some really good scenes in this that stood out and I was a big fan of his character arc throughout the film. Because of it being the one and only Brad Pitt, it was just so easy to connect with his character and want the best for him, and let’s just say Pitt has still got it when it comes to the more emotional scenes. That said, I think Pitt is likely to grab a Best Supporting Actor nomination, but because of the competition in that category and also the recent allegations that came out against him, I don’t see him winning.

Those were definitely the big three when it came to the performances, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t touch on some of the others. I’ll start with Peter Parker himself, Tobey Maguire, who has a small cameo in the third act of the film that while I know other people didn’t get or like, I just loved. He played this incredibly weird mob boss, and I just need Maguire to act more because the man’s range is incredible. I also was a big fan of both Jovan Adepo and Li Jun Li’s performances as two small side characters, and I really look forward to seeing them in more stuff. Other than that, Jean Smart was as great as she usually is, P. J. Byrne was as wild as he usually is, and Spike Jonze kicked ass in a weird cameo role thanks to his remarkable German accent.

Aside from the performances, Babylon is just a stunning movie when it comes to the technical elements at play here. The cinematography from Linus Sandgren is just incredible, and it’s by far the most ambitiously shot film Chazelle has ever done. From the crazy long takes to the camera movement, to the colorful saturated shots, the film is just so gorgeous to look at. Another reason why it is so gorgeous is because of the production design too which is also for lack of a better word, just insane and is going to win the Oscar. And last but not least, the score from Justin Hurwitz is unbelievably great. The film and the score are so united which is another reason why I love Chazelle so much because of how well he integrates music into his projects. I haven’t stopped humming the “Welcome” track from the film since I saw it and Hurwitz is 110% going to win the Oscar for Best Original Score. There’s just no denying it.

Before I get to “The Bad”, I just got to talk about the ending of the film. I really really loved the ending and I’m pretty sure my jaw was dropped for the entire last fifteen minutes. Like the entire movie, the ending is not going to work for everybody as it is this weird experimental outburst of crazy editing and while some people will roll their eyes at it, it somehow allowed me to connect with the movie so much better emotionally. It allowed me to put the pieces together and made me see the purpose behind every scene that came before it. The ending truly is what ultimately made me give this a 5/5 stars rather than a 4.5/5. I think the ending will be studied and discussed, and I can’t wait to watch this for a second and third time just so I can pick up on more stuff that I might’ve missed. Anyways, please Lord let this get nominated for Best Picture for if it doesn’t, the Academy will dearly regret it years from now.

THE BAD

Alright, I’ll be brutally honest here, it really annoys me how poor this movie is doing with critics, but more than that, how bad it is doing with general audiences. The main complaints I’ve seen from critics and audiences are the graphic content and also the runtime, which just gets under my skin. I don’t understand why people get so annoyed with the runtime as long as it is paced and edited well, which this movie 100% is. That said, the movie is 188 minutes long, so be warned, but it flew by for me and I don’t think you’ll regret checking this out. It’s just a blast from start to finish.

Now onto the graphic content, which is somehow more annoying than the runtime complaint. It’s really similar to what we saw from critics and audiences after Martin Scorsese’s 2013 epic The Wolf of Wall Street, which is also a 5-star film for me. Obviously with this movie, if you do any research, you should know that this isn’t a movie you bring your family to see over the holidays. It’s rated R, and it almost garnered an NC-17 rating because there’s a lot of drugs, nudity, and also some good old bathroom humor that you’ll get in the first five minutes. At the end of the day, this movie isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay, but I absolutely loved every second of it and maybe that shows my odd taste in movies, but it is just a shame that it’s rating with critics is hurting its chances in a number of categories for the upcoming Academy Awards.

THE VERDICT

With Babylon, Damien Chazelle swings for the fences with an epic period comedy-drama that serves as both a hate letter to Hollywood and a love letter to cinema, and he absolutely knocked it out of the park. It’s a wild three plus hour ride that contains amazing performances from Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, stunning visuals, the best score of the year from Justin Hurwitz, and a perfect ending that made this an unforgettable moviegoing experience for me.

Yes, the movie is insane and over-the-top and it will certainly lose some people, but I found there to be a point to all the ridiculousness involved and I hope other people do too because this movie is saying something that deserves to be heard and seen.