Film Review - Babylon
Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Damien Chazelle launches us into the world of 1920s Hollywood with the attempt to transport an elephant from the desert to a silent film star’s extravagant party. Rocketing off at a Scorsese-Esque pace, money changes hands, morals are compromised, and men get covered in explosive elephant diarrhoea, which sums Chazelle’s 3-hour epic up quite well as it is striking, explorative, inspired, and at times flat-out-hilarious.
Babylon features an A-list cast of actors, all at the top of their game, in a film that winds storylines through a similar cultural revolution that we see in the film industry today. While making a movie about Hollywood, Chazelle creates a poignant modern social commentary through the lens of history. By exploring themes of the commodification of films from art to products, the separation of genders and races into opposing forces, and the suffocation of liberalism, there are many parallels to the world today while the film manages to remain a highly entertaining blockbuster.
There is no denying that Chazelle has a burning passion for films which you can see in every frame of the movie - there is an enormous incorporation of cinematic references throughout the film: The Wolf of Wall Street, The King of Comedy, The Godfather Part II, and many, many more. Chazelle seems to be exploring similar themes to La La Land, and in many ways Babylon could be considered a continuation of his previous directorial efforts, with the addition of a unique theme:the transition between silent films and “talkies”. The most striking filmic comparison that can be made between this and another is Boogie Nights, taking many aspects of its structure including the frantic speed of the film, the rise of an upcoming star, the downfall of the people around the star due to drug abuse and mental illness, and a replication of the “drug deal gone wrong” scene at the end of Boogie Nights; the similarities are undeniable.
Babylon comes in at a three-hour long runtime, and . whilst some scenes work to continue the story, but not every storyline included felt necessary. The addition of Sidney Palmer's story (Palmer portrayed by Jovan Adepo) was poignant but narratively distracting. Adepo’s character Palmer is a talented black trumpet player, who acts in a string of films directed by his friend Manny Torres (played to excellent effect by Diego Calva), as his career begins to flourish before he is subject to the conservative racism of Hollywood. His storyline serves the purpose of reinforcing the effects of societal change on race and culture, more relevant today than in the context of 1920s Hollywood, as well as being more relevant than the multitude of other storylines which Chazelle prioritises. It is however unfortunate that it did not feel cohesive in the busy storyline.
If you have a tolerance for shocking scenes, and you’re prepared to hold your bladder through a three-hour runtime, or you’re looking for a film with a highly entertaining cast, that at times will bring you to tears, as well as touch you with parallels to our modern day, then Babylon may be the film for you.
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Babylon is screening in cinemas from Thursday, 19th January. For tickets and more info, click here.