Film Review: Babylon (Paramount) Dir: Damien Chazelle
Look at that image from Babylon. It’s just a marvelous encapsulation of the film.
Damien Chazelle has been a filmmaker I have had mixed feelings about in the past. I thought his debut feature, Whiplash, was a tremendous debut. I enjoyed La La Land, but it didn’t really linger past the theater. And I truly despised his First Man, finding it to be a dreadful, boring examination of the great astronaut Neil Armstrong. Each film of his was a diminishing return to me. So I was trepidatious about Babylon, despite the top notch cast. I was even unsure after the wildly fun trailer hit a few months back.
And, when the reviews started coming in - at least half being complete slams on the film (the other half didn’t seem to embrace it fully, but admired its spirit) - I became interested. These critics got themselves worked up into a damn fine lather. They weren’t just put off by the film, they appeared to be actually offended by it. Now I had to see it.
I read an article on Deadline today from before Babylon opened where Paramount were so happy with the film that they signed Chazelle to a first look deal. The expectations were that the film would rake up $18 million in its first four days. SIGH It's been one week and the film has barely made $6.5 million. Babylon cost $90 million to make. It will never make a profit, most likely. It will have a staggered worldwide release, but, unless it catches fire in Europe, I can’t see it happening that money being recouped.
Margot Robbie as Nelly LaRoy and Diego Calva as Manny Torres in Babylon
But Ghost, you say, what did YOU think of the film? Ah, my friend, that’s a great question.
Babylon is the best movie of the year.
Babylon is among the top five best films of this century.
Babylon is one of the most astounding, dazzling, emotional, hilarious, and boldest films I’ve ever seen in my life. This is the closest I’ll probably ever come to going into Apocalypse Now absolutely cold upon its release. Unfortunately, I was too young to do that with Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Vietnam tale - the film I still place as the best ever made.
And the strange thing is that it features several scenes that, were they in say, an Adam Sandler film, I would have probably walked out of it once the third one happened. I mean, barely minutes into it we experience the disgusting (but hysterically funny) head to toe soiling of a man by way of elephant diarrhea. There’s also an underage (not really underage) girl who pisses all over (not real piss) a Fatty Arbuckle type. Then, later in the film, Margot Robbie projectile vomits not once, but twice. And I loved all three moments.
There’s copious amounts of nudity, rampant drug use and alcohol guzzling, simulated hardcore sex acts, big musical numbers, wild scenes of every possible film moments gone wrong, murders, a death by heat box, gross gob spitting, a darkened tunnel that leads to one level after another of moral depravity (sorry rats) and, to top it all off, a completely ghoulish turn by Tobey Maguire, who is so god damn frightening it absolutely needs to be seen to be believed.
I was enthralled pretty much throughout. About halfway through, Chazelle decides to turn down the volume a bit and invest some time getting to know the trouble souls he’s been filming doing outrageously opulent things. It’s a bit jarring, but he ends up building up to a very emotional finale. He earns it. These people just wanted to be loved it turns out, but the world they inhabit isn’t about love, it’s about asses in seats and incorrigible behavior is tolerated, to a point.
Li Jun Li as Lady Fay Zhu in Babylon
The cast, featuring Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jovan Adepo, Jean Smart, Flea, Lukas Haas, Li Jun Li, Eric Roberts, Samara Weaving (who truly looks like Robbie’s sister), Maguire, Jeff Garlin, Ethan Suplee and Spike Jonze as a completely insane German director, is top notch. The entire team goes all in for Chazelle. They drank the spiked Kool Aid for him and have no problem with whatever befalls them. That’s devotion right there.
You ask, well what’s it about? I say who cares?! Sure, there’s a plot to it all: Silent film at the precipice of the talkies age and the ups and downs that came from this monumental shift in entertainment. My feeling is that Chazelle is not only talking about this era of film, but of the period from the mid-1960s to mid-late 1970s - which is yet another seismic shift for the film industry. What was past became dead and what was new brought audiences into a new era.
He’s talking about the disposability of people. What have you done for me lately? What can you give me? If you cease to be useful, you’re discarded like trash. It’s easy for studio executives to give up on someone like Nelly LaRoy (Robbie) once her descent into alcohol, drug use, flirtations with lesbianism and gambling become too much to bear. But they were like vultures on dead meat when she was plucked out of obscurity and displayed her immense talent.
Same goes for Jack Conrad (Pitt). The biggest silent film star, someone who keeps reaching for beauty even when the cards are against him, is tossed aside from someone that, while, as Conrad says, weren’t friends but were at least friendly.
Lukas Haas as George Munn, Brad Pitt as Jack Conrad and Spike Jonze as Otto in Babylon
Despite the great turns by Robbie, Pitt and Maguire, the real finds on this film are Jovan Adepo as trumpeter Sidney Palmer and Diego Calva as Manny Torres. Sidney goes from sleeping in a chair to a movie star, but one defining moment puts him on a different, self chosen path. Manny goes from transporting the aforementioned stomach ailing elephant to studio executive. Both men truly shine and I’m damn interested to see what they do next. Calva, in particular, reminded me of a younger, thinner Javier Bardem in many ways. He was just magnificent in a role that, in other hands, probably would have been reduced to a minor character. Bravo to Chazelle for putting the spotlight on a cast of non-white, non-straight characters and, while all may not be the leads of the film, they all get the time to shine and make their characters known - from success to failure or anything in between.
My intention for writing reviews again was to do no more than two paragraphs. I couldn’t do that with Babylon. It’s a whole lot of film to love and it deserves better than what has befallen it. I get why Avatar: The Way of Water is a success, I really do. But film cannot only be about, as Martin Scorsese said, “theme parks.” I love superhero films. I love big action films. But I love adult drama, too. I grew up watching almost everything and did my best to go out of my comfort zone. But when films are relegated to streaming or, god forbid, not made at all, we all lose something. No matter how much I love the ability to see almost anything at home, a movie still needs to be seen in a movie theater. I had begun to forget that. Babylon put me back in place.
You need to go see Babylon in the theaters as soon as possible. It deserves as big of a screen as you can find.