Skip to main content

Babylon Review


Manuel Torres (Diego Calva) and Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) met one fateful night at a party. Torres worked with elephants for the movies, and LaRoy is a star waiting for her big break. At this one party, things changed for both of them, and in a way, they navigated the silent film era together. One thing about Hollywood is that the highs are high, but the lows are low. The drugs, parties, and alcohol aided the crushing reality of how insignificant they felt in the grand scope of Hollywood. This is also applied to Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), who was at the peak of his career. Chazelle emphasized the extraordinary parties to show the emptiness in these characters. Each had something missing, and cinema filled that void for them. Whether they were in front of the camera or behind, it completed them. However, the ego does get in the way, and actors are fragile people. 


Chazelle captures the essence of filmmaking and what it would be like to be on a set in the 20s/30s. Many don’t understand how jarring the transition was from the silent era to “talkies” until they watch Stanley Donen’s Singin’ in the Rain. Those silent film stars often exaggerated their reactions and were larger than life in a silent picture. “Talkies” didn’t have to be that extra because there was dialogue, and they had an added layer of expression. It’s almost as if the actors and to learn how to act again. This changed the trajectory of many careers, and some couldn’t handle the shift. Chazelle has always leaned heavily on the sound design of his films, and Babylon played with all of it. He mixed the incredible score by Justin Hurwitz, the sound on set, the orchestra, and the dialogue to have the audience understand the monumental shift in cinema. The two that suffered the most in this film because of their image were LaRoy and Conrad, who had two different paths, yet they came to the same conclusion. 

Review by: Amanda Guarragi 

4/5

#moviereviews #filmreviews #1stReviews #BabylonMovie #damienchazelle #diegocalva #margotrobbie #bradpitt #jeansmart #justinhurwitz #jovanadepo #lijunli #candidcinema #awardseason

Popular posts from this blog

Boss Level Film Review

       Boss Level is a new addition to the time loop genre, with a twist. Ex-special forces officer, Roy Pulver, played by Frank Grillo, relives the same day until he dies. Every day he is hunted by assassins and when killed, he wakes up back in his bed where he started, only to have to try and survive all over again. Roy has no idea why he is stuck in this infinite time loop but he must do what he can to survive, and the longer he survives, the more he uncovers about his particular situation.  Unlike most action films that take time to build up, this film gets right into it and offers tons of non-stop combat sequences that would satisfy any lover of action films. Its erratic flow makes for some fun action scenes which come out of nowhere since Roy can expect the assassins to attack at any moment. If you play video games often and have ever been stuck on a level for hours or even days, you know the feeling of having to repeat the same thing over and over again u...
Read more

Godzilla vs. Kong Film Review

         Godzilla versus Kong is the action movie we have been longing for since all major blockbuster films pushed back their release dates. After three solo films between Kong and Godzilla, we finally see the two titans clash on film for the first time in what is the culmination of the Universal Monsterverse. The story is split nicely in two as team Kong and team Godzilla each have their own mission. Team Kong is on a secret mission to the center of the earth to uncover the mystery of the titans. This team consists of Dr. Nathan, Dr. Ilene, Maia, and the Youngest character in the film, Jia. Team Godzilla consists of Madison, Josh, and Bernie who are also on a secret mission, to infiltrate Apex Cybernetics with the theory that they are up to no good and are the reason why Godzilla has been acting up recently. The dynamics of the teams are well balanced as the Kong story provides us with serious and more action-heavy bits in contrast to the Apex team story that ...
Read more

Inside Out 2 | Review by: Stefano Bove

  Nine years ago, Pixar introduced us to Riley, a young girl who is trying to grow with change happening with herself and her family. Her emotions; joy, anger, sadness, fear and disgust help her through these difficult times.   Now two years, Riley is 13 and is going through new life changes physically and emotionally as she tries to grip with the reality that the rest of her life relies on how the next weekend goes. All of these changes spark new emotions to grow inside of her.  It is a tough time for Riley that she must overcome. It is a snapshot in time that is probably a big emotional trigger for audiences as well as we go on this journey with Riley. Taking the incredibly intricate memory world that was established in the first film, the sequel makes a few minor additions that allow it to feel familiar but still fresh enough to keep us engaged. Many of these new additions are some of the funniest moments in the entire series.  With more emotions and human charact...
Read more