Babylon Reviews

Even if this movie was a flop when it was released, since it was directed by Damien Chazelle, I was still quite eager to check it out. Well, unfortunately, even if it was definitely Chazelle’s most ambitious project so far, I’m afraid it didn’t really work out after all. It’s not that it was bad, there were so many great ideas and the damned thing looked quite amazing but it seems that Chazelle had watched too many movies directed by Baz Luhrmann and Federico Fellini at the same time. The first issue was with the characters. Sure, Brad Pitt was fine and the meta-casting was pretty neat. However, I thought it was rather difficult to root for him when, even at the top of his popularity, the guy was basically an unreliable drunk. Concerning Margot Robbie, well, she was obviously the biggest asset in this movie. However, the whole routine of the hysterical and destructive actress became old at some point and, in spite of a very strong performance from Robbie, it felt rather one-note, I’m afraid. However, the most problematic character was the one played by Diego Calva thougy. Sure, I won’t blame Calva who did what he could with his puppy eyes but his character was just too bland and boring. Finally, for some reason, they started to focus also on some black trumpet player but it lasted for only 20 mins so you might wonder why they even bothered if it was to spend so little time with the poor fellow. Eventually, what bothered me the most was probably the running time though. Indeed, even though not everything was working, during the first 2 hours, I was still admiring most of it. However, during the last stretch, they could have concluded so many times and I think they could have easily cut 1 hour of running time. Eventually, even though the end-result was definitely ambitious, it did feel rather pretentious as well, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Damien Chazelle’s work.