Babylon (Damien Chazelle, 2023)

The other shift over the course of the movie for me was the genre. I expected a dramedy going in, but after the first hour it felt like a full-blown comedy to me. Obviously, it didn't stay that way.

The theme seems to be how the sin of Hollywood eventually gets to you, so the eventual genre shift was no surprise. In fact, to me it felt more well-handled than Parasite.

I hadn't thought about it until now, but it's telling that Sidney and Manny were the ones to survive; they got out of Hollywood.

Yep, saw it yesterday.

Yesterday WAS opening day. And your quote is 5 hours old. I saw it yesterday too. My first opening day movie.

It came out Thursday evening in the US.

I didn;t say it opened up worldwide. You just shouldn't be surprised if people in other countries have seen something already. We don;t always get first dibs in America either.

What’s the consensus as of now, is it any good? I’m a bit apprehensive from reading things about scatological scenes with elephants etc.

I don't think there is a consensus. Critics are pretty split. I like it. KeyserCorleone loves it. It is quite graphic and just plain gross at times, no two ways around it. The scene you mentioned is the first scene of the movie, so at least you get that out of the way.

Right, that’s helpful. I’ll watch it anyway, just interesting to get feedback beforehand.

Whiplash was insanely good in my view, one of best climatic scene of all time

So we only have two confirmed watches. Are we the only true Chazelle fans on Movieforums?


The first thing that comes to mind is what your thoughts are about the exaggerated debauchery. I think the idea was to cement the first feelings of raw tension which help the plot move on and get more thrilling. I honestly lost a little bit of hair watching that movie. Or did that scene about MaGuire's special hell hole feel thrown in?

So some people are calling out Babylon as being woke since...



I think this is kinda bullshit. And why?



OK, maybe I'll give you the lesbian. MAYBE. But there's a difference between a truly woke movie and, as Jeff Bridges in Iron Man would put it, "shutting the hippies up." This kinda reeked of the latter. Besides, she was hardly a moral compass herself...



The movie was literally saying that everyone involved in the business is sinful.

And on the subject of multi-racial casting, you don't have to be woke to do that. My proof lies in the reason David Yost left the multi-racial central Power Rangers a couple years after inception: wokes wouldn't even mock a man for being gay in the 90's, but that's exactly what he got from the cast and crew.

Just sayin', there are way more "woke" things than Babylon. And it takes more than a multi-racial cast.

Babylon (2022)

I don't know what it says about me where two of my favorite films of the year feature explosions of bodily fluids but Damien Chazelle's Babylon is the most divisive film of the year and I'm on the positive side. This movie is three hours long and it flies by the 20 minute pre-credit party scene is amazing. This is a film that I don't youtube will let you but you need to pause parts to see all the debauchery in the background.

The party sets up the plot where a Hollywood leading man (Brad Pitt) his gofer (Deigo Calva) and a party crasher (Margot Robbie) have a fun time which leads into a silent film shoot the next day. Robbie gives what I feel is the performance of the year as an unashamed drug addict looking to become a star. She's incredible in this the only thing keeping her from the Oscar is she keeps her clothes on (sort of). But she has five or six sequences in this film that are pure manic energy.

Brad Pitt is also in this as the inverse of Cliff Booth, Jack Conrad the biggest star in the world who has to deal with the changing of the times. Pitt is doing the best work of his career right now, he walks a fine line between being on a full on libertine and a melancholic man. His story really sticks with you and you wish he was more of a focus of the film. Sadly he's more a supporting figure than the lead which is a shame because he's the one who emotionally grounds the film.

Unfortunately because all films have to look the same we have three other stories for "diversity". Joven Adepo plays a trumpet player who gets a full character arc and it frankly feels anachronistic. It really sucks that this character is in the film because it feels less like a contrast and more like an insult. His character sticks out like a sore thumb in this one. What's worse is it contrasts with Li Jun Li as Lady Fay Zhu. Fay Zhu plays a Chinese lesbian who feels authentic to the era turning into the stereotypes of the era but creating her own character. She feels like she belongs in this world unlike Sidney Palmer....who should be in a different film. One you would skip because it's dull.

Diego Calvao plays a gofer who rise to executive in this crazy world. He's very good in this and feels like a real person. He's flawed makes some poor choices but is a solid POV character for the film. He starts to pass himself off as a Spanish from Spain producer in the film...which is a subtle shift that works. His early scenes are better than his later ones and he doesn't have the jaw dropping scenes like Li, Pitt, and Robbie. The climax of the film feels a big detached because Calvao doesn't really deserve what's happening to him.

The final thing that's great about this film is all the bit parts. Chazelles wife gets a nice little meaty role as a director. And you have a bunch of cameo's from figures of the silent age. I couldn't even keep track of all of them. I feel sad for people who are going to end up watching and finding his on TV or on their computer. This is something to be seen on the Big Screen.