While Babylon is subject to many criticisms as a movie, I experienced it more as the kind of cinematic odyssey I thought I’d rarely or even never see in my time. An epic, massive, 3 hour plus, decades-spanning story about how the ground shifts under the feet of our central characters followed by their desperate attempts to get with the times and escape the inevitability of their star fading before they feel they’ve achieved everything they’ve dreamt of. Truly felt like a Lawrence of Arabia type maxi-film about the exploitative nature of the film industry and the broken people who stand at its forefront. A rising star who’s ambition isn’t as strong as her hedonism, a veteran king of the hill slowly being forced off of it and an immigrant desperately ashamed of his identity trying to simply remain in the shadows and be a small part of making movie magic while chasing a romance with cinema that, even when he catches up to it, never measures up to what he gave up to get there. 

It’s an experience bordering on (even crossing the threshold quite a few times), sensory overload, transcending the three act structure, the characters here belong more to the realm of idea and the sequences of old Hollywood debauchery and chaotic moviemaking are edited so perfectly, they feel like sweeping epic rushes of emotion in themselves, yet they’re a part of something grander, this idea looping back to what these characters represent and the space they themselves inhabit within the film. I’m frankly ashamed this didn’t get a theatrical release I could support out here and while there are some shortcuts taken to get some points across in places and deeply indulgent tangents taken elsewhere, this is one of those films that rages with the fire of a filmmaker wanting to say and show you something far far more than just some cool shots and sharp dialogue.

Chazelle is passionate about movies but angry about what it takes to make them and he’s going to make sure you feel exactly what he’s probably been going through in the god-knows-how-many years he’s been trying to and now directing films. Despite being one of Hollywood’s youngest achievers he comes across as it’s most jaded. I clapped multiple times through this and I still do not expect everyone to “get” it. In fact debating this one is going to be half the fun, it isn’t made to be kerosene for film Twitter fires but it’s definitely gonna cause more than it’s share. 

Speaking of the technicals that helped craft this 3 hour ROB, Justin Hurwitz’s score is so good he can have the keys to my house and fuck my wife. The camera is probably sentient in this with how batshit it goes, darting all around the damn place so vibrantly. The final montage is flat out awesome. Every single monologue is performance perfection. Just the blocking, editing and colour grading are enough to make this a 4/5. Of course the Academy and most other awards’ voters snub the film loudly pointing out how the film industry might’ve done more harm than good but still hurts to see it not getting the financial or critical laurels it deserves. Also whoever marketed this clearly did more drugs than all of the characters in the movie combined because WHAT—

PS: congrats to big daddy Jim Cameron for being the only filmmaker chad enough to have two movies featured in that final montage 🙇‍♂️