Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.
Babylon is a visually audacious, kinetic film with genuinely electric performances from Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, and Linus Sandgren's cinematography is wild and immersive. The opening orgy-and-elephant sequence announces something truly unhinged. However, the plot is sprawling and episodic to a fault — the three-hour runtime loses momentum badly in the third act, and the structural choices feel indulgent rather than purposeful. The ending montage, while emotionally ambitious (a love letter to cinema itself), divides audiences between moved and baffled. Novelty is middling: the Hollywood-rise-and-fall story (Singin' in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, La La Land) is well-trodden, and while Chazelle's excess is distinctive, it doesn't fully transcend its genre debts. Acting is the clear standout, with Robbie in particular delivering one of the decade's more fearless performances.