BABYLON REVIEW: I've Gathered All My Thoughts and Still Have More
Damien Chazelle has always been a maximalist filmaker. Even when he’s working at a smaller scale such as in WHIPLASH. he brings a visual flair and sense of style that feels like it fits something so much bigger. That scale he achieved with 2016’s LA LA LAND, an eye-catching musical talking about how pursuing art can sometimes lead to sacrificing relationships that are incredibly dear to you. I’d argue that BABYLON continues this trend, embodying the idea of sacrifice in art and taking it to the point of reinventing yourself to fit in.
What I am most suprised about with this film is how well paced it feels for something over 3 hours long. Some films with runtimes this long hit the 2-and-a-half-hour mark and then the remaining 10 minutes feels almost like a chore as the pacing slows and it just feels like it’s running on for the sake of it. BABYLON does not have that effect at all, sometimes letting up with how quickly it feels but never feeling like it drags. In a way that pacing reflects what this movie is about; which is Hollywood adapting to all of the rapid changes of how movies are made.
I’m still sitting here after a good 15 hours since I saw it replaying every moment in my mind. It’s one of those films that’s just so in-your-face loud that it makes you think about it and obsess over every detail in an already over-filled frame. It’s genuinely a visual delight and seeing Linus Sandgren’s cinematography get snubbed at the Oscar nominations announcement was a difficult moment for me.
What I love about this film above everything is just how connected everything feels. While Brad Pitt’s Jack Conrad is only with Diego Calva’s Manuel “Manny” Torres for roughly the first half, their stories still echo each other. Jack was once a movie star at the height of his career and here we see him as that dream comes crashing down as he cannot find himself in this new method of movies despite asprining for progress. Manny is the complete opposite, a nobody who took a job helping at a big party and finding himself on the path to becoming a studio executive.
I talked earlier about how LA LA LAND and BABYLON both had the idea of sacrifice in art (WHIPLASH too does this, it feels like a constant within Chazelle’s filmography) and that’s the main focus of the arcs Manny and Margot Robbie’s Nellie LaRoy undergo. Manny has to sacrifice his roots, changing his name and pretending he’s from Madrid to fit into this complicated world, and Nellie as to make a complete change of her personality, from the way she talks to the way she behaves. Both of these arcs come to an emotional conclusion of them realising that they need to just be themselves rather than being sucked up into the profit making machine that is the City of Los Angeles.
The frames in this film are loud by themselves, however that’s only a part of it. The glue that mixes the visual mess together is Justin Hurwitz’s beautiful soundtrack to this. Featuring some incredible trumpet playing and other jazz instrunments, it really sets itself as part of the era and complements the scenes where it’s used. There are some moments where the score genuinely feels diagetic, even if there are no musicians actually in the specific shot.
The title of this review is “I've Gathered All My Thoughts and Still Have More” and I think that sums this up more than all of the words I’ve just written are. This film is obsessive; and everytime I write or begin a sentence a new thought springs into my mind and I think to myself “How did I not realise that earlier?”. It’s given me a new apprieciation for cinema that I didn’t realise that I had inside me and even though it doesn’t really feel like it makes sense and feels a bit out of place, the ending montage of the entire history of film from SALLY GARNDER AT A GALLOP all the way through to AVATAR interupted by brief chemical dye splashes is when the already difficult to control tears just feel from my eyes.
It’s so special and I wish more people would see it so I have more people to talk about it with. I simply cannot wait for whatever Damien Chazelle next has up his sleeve.
[Watched at Cineworld, 23.01.2023]