NERDBOT
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Subscribe
    NERDBOT
    • News
      • Reviews
    • Movies & TV
    • Comics
    • Gaming
    • Collectibles
    • Science & Tech
    • Nerd Culture
    • About Us
      • Want to Write for Nerdbot?
    NERDBOT
    Home»Movies»“Babylon” is Ephemeral, Damaged, and Beautiful [Review]
    "Babylon" Universal Pictures
    Movies

    “Babylon” is Ephemeral, Damaged, and Beautiful [Review]

    Bill WattersBy Bill WattersDecember 16, 2022Updated:December 16, 20224 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Make no mistake, “Babylon” is going to be one of those films that will appear on more than a few nominee lists during the upcoming award season. Writer and Director Damien Chazelle (who has already brought home a number of trophies for “Whiplash” as well as “La La Land“) knows how to craft a story. But whether this film will resonate with audiences will depend a great deal on the eye of the beholder.

    “Babylon” Universal Pictures

    Like 2019’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” “Babylon” is a glimpse into a bygone era of Hollywood, though this time even further back. Set in the waning years of the silent film, the story follows three main characters, Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a successful movie star, but a failure in a never ending stream of marriages; Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a newcomer to tinsel-town ready to let it know that she is coming in hot, already a star (at least in her own mind); and Manny Torres (Diego Calva), another newcomer who knows nothing about the business of movies, but has his heart set in finding his place there.

    Manny is the primary thread through the narrative, and serves as the audiences eye into this rapidly evolving entertainment world, complete with its hedonistic parties and debauched lifestyles. But the parties and the glamour come and go, like the fever dream I used as an analogy in this review’s title, or like a filmset emerging out of the Southern California desert – it exists for a time, then vanishes, with only some random detritus blowing away in a dust devil.

    “Babylon” Universal Pictures

    What is an interesting facet about the characters is that we never really get to know any of them. In most stories we will come to know most things going on with a lead character, at least during the span of a story. However here, we don’t, as we jump along in time, they will appear in a new point in their career arc, and with their own underlying demons they are battling against. For anyone who has ever spent time around Los Angeles, and around the entertainment industry in particular, the idea of knowing people, even for years, purely as superficial masks (which may be entirely unrelated to the actual person beneath), “Babylon,” will almost certainly ring all too familiar.

    In many ways, that’s the charm of the film, in a real situation, being with these people, being at one of their parties (which makes the ones from “Eyes Wide Shut” seem like a Disney tea party), and watching their blind-luck of being in the right spot at the right time and with the passion to jump in with both feet when opportunity presents itself. It can also be jarring, finding out new foibles of a character that you’d just spent 90 minutes and more getting to know. It tends to reflect real-life in many ways, but as with most things Hollywood, it’s all larger than life.

    The production design is sumptuous and beautiful, and the casting deserves it’s own nod. Robbie is top notch as always (which comes as no surprise after her turn in “I, Tonya“), but it’s Calva, who is a newcomer to most American audiences, that is a standout performance. Someone who can equally hold their own in a scene going toe to toe with Robbie and Pitt will be someone to be watched. Jean Smart plays film critic and gossip columnist, Elinor St. John, stops the film cold with a monologue she delivers to Pitt regarding his career that is a case study for how to win a best actress nomination in a single scene.

    “Babylon” Universal Pictures

    If it seems that I haven’t been clear if it’s a “good” film or not, I think it is, and it is one that’s important and should be watched. That goes doubly so for anyone who has a love for cinema and Hollywood. Like a fever dream, or the epic set that was once created for Cecil B. DeMille‘s 1923 version of “The Ten Commandments” (which was only rediscovered in 2014 buried in the sands of Guadalupe), it washes over you, emerges larger than life, and then, like the mere mortals the individuals in the industry machine, fades away into memory. Some people will undoubtedly find it a lot of empty calories, and much ado about nothing, however if they think on it and look deeper, there’s a lot there, under the flash, and most of it is the deep soul-crushing sadness and loneliness. The type only to be found in a crowd.

    Rating 7.5 out of 10 stars.

    “Babylon” hits theaters on December 23rd, 2023.

    Author

    Bill Watters
    0%
    0%
    7.5
    • User Ratings (0 Votes)
      0
    75%
    Beautiful if Fleeting

    Babylon

    • Overall
    Readers Rating: 0
    0 votes
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous Article“Yellowjackets” Gets Green Light for Season 3
    Next Article First Teaser for Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” is Here
    Bill Watters
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn

    Bill Watters is a child of the late 70s- he walked into a theater to watch Star Wars, and emerged to become a lifelong fan of cinema and television. Spending nearly a decade as a projectionist, he fell into the Silicon Valley dot-com boom and became a codemonkey for a range of game companies. These days he's a frequent speaker, moderator, and panelist at pop-culture events and conventions, as well as a prolific film and television critic and genre news writer. He is also a member critic of both the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association. In addition to his writing, he is also a photojournalist and can be found on Getty Images.

    Related Posts

    Ayo Edebiri Joins Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts” in Mystery Role

    January 26, 2023

    What Ever Happen to the Bus from “Spice World?”

    January 25, 2023

    95th Academy Awards Announces Oscars Nominations

    January 24, 2023

    Star-Studded Film “The Son” Fails to Shine [Review]

    January 23, 2023

    “Missing” is Edge of Your Seat Technology Thriller [Review]

    January 23, 2023

    New Trailer for “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” Hits

    January 23, 2023
    • Trending
    • Latest
    • Movies
    • TV

    Christian Activist Suing The NFL For $867 Trillion Over Half-Time Show

    February 5, 2020

    Marvel Eyeing GOT Star Nathalie Emmanuel To Play The MCU’s Storm

    June 27, 2019

    Rumor: Charlie Hunnam In Talks For New Wolverine Movie

    May 20, 2019

    Scientists Are Actually Trying to Open a Portal to a Mirror Universe(Yes Really)

    December 28, 2019
    "Jay Leno's Garage"

    Jay Leno’s 30-Year NBC Run Comes to an End

    January 27, 2023

    There’s a Reason Pink Waves Are Hitting California Shoreline

    January 27, 2023

    WATCH: Disney 100th Celebration Live from Disneyland

    January 27, 2023

    Phoebe Waller-Bridge Writing Amazon’s “Tomb Raider” Series

    January 27, 2023

    Ayo Edebiri Joins Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts” in Mystery Role

    January 26, 2023

    What Ever Happen to the Bus from “Spice World?”

    January 25, 2023

    95th Academy Awards Announces Oscars Nominations

    January 24, 2023

    Star-Studded Film “The Son” Fails to Shine [Review]

    January 23, 2023
    "Jay Leno's Garage"

    Jay Leno’s 30-Year NBC Run Comes to an End

    January 27, 2023

    Phoebe Waller-Bridge Writing Amazon’s “Tomb Raider” Series

    January 27, 2023

    “Frasier” Revival Reveals Son of Niles and Daphne

    January 27, 2023

    HBO Orders Season 2 of “The Last of Us”

    January 27, 2023
    Related Posts

    None found

    San Diego Comic-Con
      • auction
      • carnivorous plant
      • dinosaur
      • pennyworth
      • San Diego Comic-Con
    NERDBOT
    Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    © 2023 NERDBOT Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.