Babylon
Paramount PicturesSince its birth, cinema has been a place for dreams to come true and magic to be made a reality. While the form itself has seen revolution and evolution, the core escapism the art form provides remains unlike any other. After impressing audiences and scoring multiple awards throughout his early career, filmmaker Damien Chazelle turns his attention to challenging the cinema itself with his newest feature Babylon. Set during the deviant 1920s where the money and fame of Hollywood create a culture of outcasts and dreamers finding their place, Babylon serves as a dissertation on evolution and asks how much individuals are willing to sacrifice and give to stay in the ever-changing spotlight.
Running at a whopping 189 minutes, Babylon is a modern epic in every sense of the word. Taking place roughly over the course of about a decade, Babylon carries the weight of time and scale within its very own soul. The characters introduced at the start of the film are young and free. They attend parties that worship at the altar of the taboo and are allowed to pump themselves full of whatever drugs and hopes they desire. They find their way into the spotlight and begin a relationship that benefits both themselves and the established culture of cinema with their impact pushing the medium to evolve and change. The thing about evolution is that it doesn’t stop. Eventually, they find their place in the spotlight growing smaller and smaller as new figures and ideals begin to define the form. From the rise of the talkies to a general morality within society changing, these individuals who once meant so much are left to rot and die.
This is a bold and rather aggressive perspective for the feature to take. Chazelle is pushing back and attacking cinema through the medium itself. The film challenges the celebration of progress and even directly twists some of the most acclaimed films of all time through the perspective of sorrow and anger. This tragic venom of progress is something that has plagued humanity. American author John Steinbeck captured this discussion wonderfully in his 1962 work, Travels with Charley: In Search of America, when he pondered, "I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction." The size and scale of the film allow this progress and change to come naturally and sneak up on audiences with a poignance eerily similar to the weight found in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 drama, The Irishman, which also utilized a notably long runtime to create the impression of the cruelty of time.
However, Babylon is far from nihilistic. The mature and complex relationship presented with cinema is one that is authentic and challenging. On paper, it feels so easy for Babylon to totally condemn the art form but the film understands and embraces the seductive pull of cinema. It understands the magic that comes when the lights darken and the projector rolls. It is almost abusive how cinema can take so much yet still hold so much power and love. The characters, alongside the filmmakers behind the camera, clearly love film. They love the evolution and potential of cinema even if the industry is brutal and venomous. There are no easy answers as to how these characters or the audience should engage in this conversation which only adds to the layers provided by the film’s narrative.
Chazelle's focus throughout the film is one that bounces between one of an incredibly grand scale and one of close intimacy. Babylon is a bombastic and loud feature that paints epic scenes using human bodies in a way rarely seen within modern cinema. There is great power to seeing hundreds of bodies move and flow together in a way that obviously resembles some of the visuals both of early cinema and Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust. Thematically, the size of Chazelle’s net is also massive. Chazelle tackles an array of identities and personalities with focus given to how the industry interacts and dances with them. While it is clear that Chazelle lacks the perspective and lived experience to fully flush out every one of these angles with deep authenticity and thesis, conversations surrounding race and sexuality specifically feel noticeably shallow and condensed, the range of diversity in perspectives is still appreciated, and helps fill the film’s long runtime. There is also a clear exploration within the film of morality and what society deems acceptable. Babylon spends time in the dark underbelly of Hollywood where sexual fantasies and bloody violence is celebrated and embraced outside the cleaner public image. Chazelle transforms Hollywood into hell and sends the audience wandering through like Dante in The Inferno.
The cast behind the project is excellent with each succeeding both in their moments of tremendous joy and pain. While Margot Robbie is predictably incredible with endless talent and personality, Diego Calva impresses as a modern revelation. Calva is poetic and crafted with every movement and moment of speech being thoughtful and perfect. His performance is given a tremendous responsibility in the film’s final moments to tie in all the complex themes and emotions in a digestible final unspoken statement that shines without a single flaw due to a combination of direction behind the camera and ability from Calva. On the sidelines, Li Jun Li and Jovan Adepo also shine and make the most of their limited screen time with a power and presence that remains notable throughout the entire runtime. Coming in only briefly within the third act, Tobey Maguire is sure to polarize many with his oddball yet wickedly tense performance that is sure to please anyone with a strange curiosity for how the actor might pull off a more sinister character like The Joker.
With the all-star talent behind the film’s technical side, it should come as no surprise that the film is one of the strongest technical achievements of the year. The score by Justin Hurwitz threatens to become an instant classic with a bombastic energy that is infectious. The cinematography by Linus Sandgren is inspired with multiple scenes truly feeling like a work of modern art. The editing from Tom Cross is crucial for building momentum and movement throughout the film’s long runtime with the final climax being one of the most incredible displays of cinematic expression and craft ever seen thanks largely due to the skill of Cross. Chazelle challenges both himself and his crew with a feature that requires perfection and precision in execution in every frame to avoid becoming an utter mess and failure. Every individual both in front and behind the camera more than rises to the occasion to deliver a final product that truly feels like a defining masterpiece that will live and grow within the zeitgeist for decades.
Babylon is not just another masterpiece from Chazelle, it is his magnum opus. It is a bold and risky move to challenge the identity of cinema through the form itself but the final result is undeniable. Babylon is an important and needed feature that elevates the very form it both belongs to and is analyzing. Babylon is the best film of the year and truly feels like it will grow into being seen and recognized as being an all-time great.
