Dazzling homage to cinema Cast: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Flea, Jovan Adepo, J.C. Currais, Jimmy Ortega, Hansford...
Dazzling homage to cinema
Cast: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego
Calva, Jean Smart, Flea, Jovan Adepo, J.C. Currais, Jimmy Ortega, Hansford
Prince, Telvin Griffin, Olivia Wilde, Circus-Szalewski, Lukas Haas, Tobey
Maguire
Rating: 4/5
Damien
Chazelle’s latest is ambitious, to say the least – it has everything from
fetishes to gore to drugs to drama, literally everything and that makes for a
really fun time at the cinema or at home watching this film. Chazelle is no
stranger to making films with grand scopes (save Whiplash), and this is like
nothing he’s ever made before. This honestly might be better than La La Land in
terms of filmmaking and performance.
A tale of
outsized ambition and outrageous excess, Babylon traces the rise and fall of
multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early
Hollywood.
The end is a
homage to “Cinema Paradiso” which can be guessed pretty easily. The film is
completely bonkers from the beginning, it starts with an elephant excreting on
a man which is followed by a woman peeing on a naked man.
You’re hooked
from the beginning right to the end, not giving you even a moment to think
about the film let alone something else. The film is clearly an homage to
cinema (just watch the final sequence which is meticulously crafted), but it is
also about stardom and how it changes a person’s life.
The score from
Hurwitz is still great to listen to. The camerawork, like Chazelle’s previous
works, is excellent and a strong competitor for the best cinematography
category at the Oscars. The direction from Chazelle is top-notch. The
performances are excellent all around, with Margot Robbie stealing the show
along with Diego Calva in the scenes in which Brad Pitt isn’t there. In all the
others scenes featuring Pitt, he steals the show singlehandedly with his wit
and his charm. Tobey Maguire is terrific in the single scene he is in. The
editing is excellent, with the pacing being really good which makes this mammoth
of a film (three hours and nine minutes) go by as though time hasn’t passed.
Babylon is an
ambitious film that inexplicably failed at the box office but is essential
viewing for all cinema lovers.
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