I watched Babylon in two parts. It seems to have been paced so that it could be easily serialized as six (more or less) 30 minute episodes. I’d title them as
Diving Into Debauchery in the 20s- the Honeymoon Years
The Dream Factory
A Star Is Born (The Talking Picture)
The Burdens of Fortune, Wobbling On The Tightrope Of Fame
Driven to Decadence in the 30s- Welcome to the Pits
Retrospective and Egress
And there’s your magic trick; no more movie, this is Reel. The stage magic of motion pictures. From Reel to Real.
I dug Babylon. Enjoyed all of the performances- I expected Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie to be able to handle their parts with aplomb, and they did. They get to play movie stars who know that they’re movie stars, which is not much of a stretch for either of them. The third main character, Diego Calva, has a more challenging role, and one with more emotional range, and he does a great job with it. Some of the supporting cast are allowed to take their parts and run with them. (There’s one on-set meltdown for the ages- a scene that was written to be stolen from the lead actors, and stolen it is. Perhaps the best scene in the film.) Everyone in the cast is at least good, from my amateur reviewer perspective. Babylon was probably a lot of fun to make. No the most tightly constructed narrative, but in most other ways it’s a well-crafted movie. Lots of knowing nods to classic antecedents, both literary and cinematic: Petronius’ Satyricon, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby and “The Crack-Up”, Nathanael West’s Day Of The Locust, Robert Stone’s Children Of The Sun; Fellini's Satyricon, Corman's Masque Of The Red Death, Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Hazanavicius' The Artist, from 2011...even Scorcese's Hugo. Hugo, 20 years later: the glorious magic of film, with the innocent childhood awe of the first years of cinema replaced by “adult content”: more probing explorations of the human condition, including decadence and depravity. Both onscreen and offscreen. All the hustlers had moved in. (The hustlers are still there.) Along with the march of the technology. (Which continues to march, into the realm of ever more dazzling fakery.)
Babylon is a salacious movie. Where would it be without that? But no way is it a tribute to the redemptive power of easy sex, drugs, drink, decadence, material wealth, fame, or Stardom. It's a warning about the pitfalls of Glamour and Illusion. If you don’t pick up on the toxicity of the excess and the doomstruck trajectory of the chracters, you aren’t paying enough attention to the story. The plot sprawls quite a bit; there are enough loose ends that there are probably another two hours of branching developments on the cutting room floor. And while I don't doubt that Hollywood parties often got garishly decadent in the 1920s and 30s, the over-the-top portrayal of Babylon undoubtedly bears only slightly more resemblance to historical reality than the not-at-all-credible spotless perfection of Martin Scorcese's film version of Herbert Asbury's book Gangs Of New York. Lack of realism in the way the scenes are set is often a problem that often bothers me about film depictions. But not all that much, in this case- partly because I don't think Babylon is really a movie about the 1920s and 1930s. It's about the dubious values of decadence in any era, with its heedless celebration of youth, images, surfaces, gluttony and greed. And also about the enduring appeal of idealized illusions and the promise of unbridled hedonism sold as “progressive liberation”, versus the way things actually end up for those who jump on the fast lane of that freeway and are unable to find an exit ramp in time. There are some eerily prescient moments in Babylon 2022’s depiction of the shadow side of debauchery, and the enclosing poisons attendant to an overdose of material wealth. But it’s also honest about the physical pleasure drive, and the attractions of total sensory overload.
[POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD]
One false note that I really had to go out of my way to overlook; that last bit in the “snake scene” really would not have happened that way. For a minute, I was left wondering if the second half of the film was going to consist of some lame zombie movie. The climax of that scene and the gala party scene that follows it shortly thereafter are the weakest part of Babylon. Both of those scenes need better finishing work. Less scenery chewing (in this case a script problem, not an overacting problem.) The gala scene would also benefit from a little more more setup and context. I wouldn’t throw it away- parts of it work great (like Joven Adapo’s Sidney Palmer, extricating himself from being pinned to a frame by High Society whiteys.) Write a more coherent transition, and it would be a much more coherent work.
As presented, Babylon is an entertaining haunted-house noir stem-winder, with occasional flashes of brilliance and insight. If all the scenes had worked to consistently advance the story- and if every scene in Babylon approached the peaks of its best twists and turns- the film might have achieved excellence. It has noticeable flaws, arguably glaring ones. But I’ll give Babylon this: I definitely find it Watchable. I think it would work well as a double feature or binge-watch, matched with some of the other films I mentioned above. Fellini’s Satyricon, for example. (Both Hugo and The Artist should best be reserved as openers for the others. They’re out of place in any other position in the order.)
My personal preference for weekend film festival viewing order: begin with
Hugo
then
2. Babylon 2022
3. Eyes Wide Shut
4. Masque of the Red Death
5. Satyricon
6. Metropolis
and end with
7. Mothra.
That last recommendation is part of the 09/26/2022 update for this post. I just saw the original Mothra for the first time a week or so ago on TCM. I loved it. In its own way, it’s as innocent as the earliest experiments with motion pictures that provided the story line for Hugo. Granted, there’s more violence in Mothra. However, the production values and surreal fantasy world of Mothra will remind you that “at the end of the day”, movies- and all visual media- are all about glamour and illusion. Conjuring tricks. Phantom images, pre-edited and designed to focus and narrow the attention of an audience which is typically self-selected, attracted by and willing to be drawn into the fantasy world that the illusion presents.
Some suspension of disbelief is pretty much required in order to entertain any cinematic illusion. But pack some healthy skepticism and critical thinking skills along with you, because technological advances have conferred fictions with more of an appearance of reality than ever before. In the world of CGI and AI, that ability to generate glamour and illusion is only going to intensify and proliferate. So keep your wits about you. Remember that visual media is always part Mothra.
More deep and rigorous analysis here, courtesy of the Babylon Bee.