Mark Kermode reviews Babylon - Kermode and Mayo’s Take

Babylon here we go new film by Damien chazelle um  long and uh expansive and frankly so the story if   you can actually use the word story to describe  the succession of over choreographed set pieces   basically at the center of it two Silver Screen  dreamers you have Manuel Manny Torre played by   Diego calva and Nelly Leroy played by Margot  Robbie she wants to be a star somebody says you   want to become a social you don't become a star  you either are a story you aren't a star he just   wants to work in the movie industry we meet them  uh in the late 20s and uh there's glitzy parties   going on uh Brad Pitt is a movie star who has  these glitzy parties they both desperately want   to get into the movie industry they both do get  into the movie industry as the industry itself   changes around them going from the silent period  into the sound period going from the pre-code era   into the into the sort of you know more corporate  era and the film follows their Adventures through   a series of glamorous glitzy exotically debauched  back an alien revelries here's a clip next time   try softer okay but why my darling Pier why what  what hey move that microphone 45 degrees okay okay it's not manual it's money money tourist okay   okay okay let's roll people let's go take  two [Music] now that scene as you can tell   is referring to singing in the rain and the  thing about you know singing in the rain going   from Silent into sound and some people could make  the transition some people couldn't and the film   makes a lot of references to singing in the rain  before finally ending up going to see singing in   the rain and having one of the most ridiculous end  sequences of you know kind of Stargate explosions   of the history of Cinema here is the um here's the  main thing about uh Babylon Babylon begins with an   elephant pooing it's straight into the camera in  the first three minutes and you think as you do   with the you know where you're gonna go what are  you gonna do for a second act after that we get   a bloke eating live rats in the bowels of hell we  get an alligator chained up downstairs somewhere   in some Subterranean Cavern we get Margot  Robbie fighting a rattlesnake which has its   head cut off with a sword we get to watch a Fatty  Arbuckle style event with an actor and somebody   um relieving themself at a party we get  people swinging from the chandeliers and   you know Jasmine and everyone's getting on  everyone's getting along famously and it just   starts at that tenor and it just keeps going  like that and it just keeps going like that   and it just keeps going on the camera goes well  he's really swelling the music and everyone goes and okay it's exhausting the problem with it is it  isn't entertainingly exhausting and more than that   it isn't intriguingly or insightfully exhausting  it's just like being yelled at for three hours   it's an incredibly ill-disciplined movie and  it may be that within the entire back an alien   debauch of it there are some interesting ideas  about the way in which the movie industry changed   during that period but firstly I love singing in  the rain you evoke singing in the rain at your   peril and when you're in the middle of a movie  which is a sprawling mess of a thing reminding   us that singing in the rain is an incredibly  well disciplined well choreographed movie is   not the smartest move second yes okay you can have  some fun going oh well that fictional character is   based on that actor and that fictional character  is a bit of that actor and and this situation is a   little bit of that that's fine I mean you know  Kenneth Angus Hollywood Babylon everyone kind   of you know had a copy of it kicking around it's  fine it's not enough to sustain a three-hour movie   thirdly and I think more importantly it's like  the film just imagines itself to be so much more   chaotically enthralling than it is if you  see you've seen the poster you know which   you know Margaret Robbie being hoisted above  a reveling that's what the film's like and I   found it really really really full of itself  way too long I mean I said Babylon and on and   on and on and the fact that a movie that's  got so much debauchery in it could be quite   so uninteresting really I think seals its fate  you find debauchery more interesting normally   yes yes yes exactly and it turns up in the New  Forest it's not like that no it's not like that   much it's you know serious I mean the thing with  Damien chazelle is I mean I I have liked Damien   giselle's working the bus you and I looked at  the Eddie remember during lockdown when the   Eddie was on Netflix and we thought it was kind  of well done this just felt like a gr like a   it was like being thrown into a into a kind of  Splash Pool sewer and told isn't that thrillingly   exciting you know and it's it's just not it's a  mess of a movie it's an absolute uncontrolled mess   of a film Sun Hutchinson in Austin yes I've just  returned from seeing Babylon and I am more than   disappointed I am livid this plotless Meandering  Pastiche of incoherent excess there there we go   contains the seeds of three different movies only  one of which is interesting and none of which are   original sadly it'll probably win Oscars I don't  think it will because we Americans love graphic   depictions exactly and of Hollywood but out  of puritanical repression we feel obligated   to pretend it's art I'd like to talk about the  good part first Jovan adepo is cat Anderson and   Legion Lee is Anime Wong yes the names have  been changed but their stories adepos Jazz   Trumpeter accounts for two two of the film's  total of six interesting minutes [Laughter]   provides the other four she absolutely commands  every scene she appears in I would have really   quite enjoyed those six minutes had they been  presented as two cinematic shorts Unfortunately   they are divvied up and parsimoniously rationed  amidst over three hours of Despair porn Margot   Robbie is wasted on another Typecast Tonya  Harding Harley Quinn character this time in   the fifth remake of A Star is Born Brad Pitt  seems to have quite enjoyed Once Upon a Time   in Hollywood but maybe wished he'd played the Leo  role he dials it in accordingly sadly Babylon has   no poolside flamethrower scene to save this  80 million dollars of fatuous ghastly insipid   tedium this is three and a half hours of my life  I will never get back I should have stayed at home   re-watch Glass Onion and taken a nap well can I  just say I think that did a better job than I did   but but he's right there are some interesting  go that's interesting let's let's do that no   no no no no we're back to another orgy yes we're  back to another fight with a rattlesnake anyway   uh correspondence you've seen Babylon yeah  I watched it over a period of a week yeah I   watched it over three hours but it felt like  I was watching it over a period of a week I   mean I watched that 40 in 40 minute chunks it's  Tosh isn't it well yes kind of also you you very   quickly reach to the reach the opinion I don't  care about anyone a single person although as   son is pointing out the Giovanna Depo character  and Legion they are interesting okay yes maybe   them but everyone else nah don't care hey Simon  apparently we've got 20 seconds to tell people   how fabulous nordvpn is okay one you get access  to streaming services in other countries twos   you save money on booking holidays as well as  having premium cyber security on your devices   and all for the price of a coffee a month to get  your exclusive nordvpn deal go to nordvpn.com   com slash km take for a huge discount on your  nordvpn plan and a bonus gift it's completely   risk-free with nord's 30-day money-back guarantee  the link is in the description below below

Channel: Kermode and Mayo's Take

Views: 153,634

Keywords: Mark Kermode, Simon Mayo, Kermode and Mayo's Take, Film Review, TV Review

Id: _Igs7Zoy6nQ

Length: 8min 21sec (501 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 20 2023