Babylon

Babylon (2022) 

55% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 259 reviews)

Runtime: 189 LONG minutes

Directed by: Damien Chazelle

Starring: Many famous faces; I’ll mention Margot Robbie and Diego Calva as the focus is on them

From: Paramount

An elephant emptying its bowels was only a harbinger of things to come! Then again, either that or a main character’s epic barfing describes me since last night… whatever it was I ate, the result was the worst case of food poisoning I can ever remember having. My bowels are starting to finally feel better around the time of posting although sleep was minimal so at least for a day I’ll be taking a break from watching any films and thus posting any reviews.

It pains no one more than me that this was not a movie I loved like most other people on Letterboxd, Film Twitter, and other similar places. La La Land was only fine but First Man was far more enjoyable to my tastes so it seemed like a win when Damien Chazelle was going to cover an interesting topic (the end of the silent era in Hollywood and the start of the talkies, along with how hedonistic that time apparently was) and reference a book I’ve read before, Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon.

Having thumbed through it recently, that book is not necessary as research for the film. How much of it is actually truthful instead of saucy gossip with no basis in reality is unknown to me—all I can say for certain is that it does mention various celebrity scandals/deaths of the time which actually did happen. Various characters are based on actual figures from the past: obvious examples are a stand-in for Fatty Arbuckle/his one night with Virginia Rappe and the old canard concerning Clara Bow and the USC Trojans football team. Point is, not much from the book was used in the film aside from the general sybaritic attitude.

What the movie’s biggest demerits were: just how crass it came off and even knowing beforehand the F-bombs were way excessive, that was not enjoyable to me. It was OTT vulgarity and cursing, which must not impress me anymore due to my “advanced age” of turning 42 (!) uncomfortably soon. The long opening party/bacchanal was the worst when it came to that material. The epic 3 hour length started to wear me down in the final act; that was compounded by some of the material in the final act… including the subplot involving Tobey Maguire for a few minutes becoming totally WTF and not feeling like something from our universe, let alone early 30’s California. A few people walked out at that point. Then there were some pretentious moments and the astonishment that a classic they in essence lifted plot points from being shown in the finale. This bravura production definitely has flaws.

Despite all that, I can still say this was good overall. The moments where they cover Old Hollywood and its transition to the talkies era (along with all the struggles the silent stars had with the change) was fascinating and it was neat to see how the sausage was made. It was shot pretty well and some scenes were constructed rather well. The solid cast is a big asset; Margot Robbie and Diego Calva were the standouts-which was good as the movie is anchored on them as newcomers to the derangement. One of the surprises: Flea did a swell job with the few scenes he had. The score: pretty awesome/bold and it also helped elevate various scenes.

How messy this is aside, watching an original big movie studio release currently which cost so much money and is so wild… I appreciate such things instead of all the “safe” pictures we’ve gotten for years now. The great moments made me glad to have seen this theatrically; will I ever watch this in full again? Eh… Boogie Nights and Goodfellas this is not; it certainly ain’t Singin’ in the Rain either—I’m glad many here liked it more than me.