Babylon (2022) - 7/10
I enjoyed this a lot more than i thought i would. Damien Chazelle's La La Land is a top 10 movie for me but the previews for this didn't hook me. The marketing was based on the first 20-30 min of the picture which is set during a lavish party of the highest depravity. It's an important sequence but the film covers a ton of ground and this marketing does a terrible job encapsulating what the film is.
The film is set in the 20s/30s and follows the transition of Hollywood from silent film to Talkies and the human cost of that cultural shift. At least aesthetically. The film is not truly set in the past its about right now and the current shift into the new new hollywood. It's in that regarf that Brad Pitts' character allows him to give a very interesting performance as he plays a silent star who boldy champions and pursues the advancement but is struggling to survive in this new landscape.
This struggle, as theaters are dying off and the old new hollywood shrinks away into obscurity, is explored through 4 main characters from multiple perspectives, all of which have echoes into the present day.
The final sequence aims to paint this is a glorious tradition that paved the path for generations of wonderul memories using a sizzle cut of great film scenes from the 50s on up. Implication is that this has happened before and led to great things.i find that to be far too optimistic. The loss of the home video format has already fundamentally altered the economic model of the hollywood studios and losing the theater model will do them in completely.
The real champion of this picture is the editing. The film spends a lot of its run time moving at a breakneck pace that really serves to demonstrate the chaos of the world these characters are in
The cinematography is no slouch here though either. There are some very fun oners and some scenes that are framed with a really great eye. The score is another big character in the movie and i really enjoyed the heavy brass pieces. Also, I should give some praise to Margo Robbie and Toby McGuire who i think give memorable performances.
As a whole this is a nice package. Everything was thoughtfully put together at every level of production.im certainly more pessimistic than the script is but i wasn't expecting much from this and was pleasantly surprised.