Search This Blog

Friday, December 30, 2022

Babylon (2022)

Set in 1926 Hollywood, the film follows four characters as film transitions from the silent movies to the sound era: a big film star (Brad Pitt), an ambitious starlet (Margot Robbie), a Mexican immigrant (Diego Calva) and a black trumpet player (Jovan Adepo). Written and directed by Damien Chazelle (LA LA LAND), this three hour plus epic is a polarizing film. One tends to either love it or hate it and I fall into the love it category. Much of the criticism towards the movie is aimed at its excess but that excess is the very thing that I love about the film. It reminds me why I fell in love with the movies in the first place. Chazelle's film is almost a loving goodbye to the movies as we knew it because post pandemic, they will never be the same again. Sorry but Netflix, Hulu, Youtube etc. and your 55" monitor are not the movies. Performances are excellent especially from Pitt, Robbie, Adepo and Jean Smart as a gossip columnist. It's an overwhelming experience. The only nitpick I have is that Justin Hurwitz score as good as it is can't help but sound like LA LA LAND revisited. With Li Jun Li,  Lukas Haas, Olivia Wilde, Katherine Waterston and Eric Roberts.

Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Mike's Movie RoomJanuary 2, 2023 at 12:00 AM

    The mix of passionate opinions of this film had me ready to buy a ticket and see it for myself. But when I saw the running time, I held back, not willing to sit in a theater for more than three hours. If this film is indeed a loving goodbye to the movies as we knew it, then I almost feel obligated to go and see it. You're right, of course. My movie room is not the movies. But even long before the Covid era, my multiplex experience no longer felt like "the movies" to me. Still, I'm not ready to give up hope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The CinemaScope CatJanuary 2, 2023 at 1:58 PM

      The three hour running time was intimidating to me, too. But there was no way I was going to miss this one in the cinemas. Surprisingly, I was never conscious of the running time. I've seen 90 minute movies that seemed to go one forever but there's so much going on here that there's no time to think about the running time.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)