Babylon

Name: Babylon
Genre: Drama, History, Comedy
Released: December 23, 2022
Duration: 188 min
Rating: 60
Cast: Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Eric Roberts, J.C. Currais, Jean Smart

2022

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 63 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 129 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	Your Score
6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 129 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 23, 2022 | R

Starring: Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Eric Roberts, J.C. Currais, Jean Smart, Jimmy Ortega, Katherine Waterston, Li Jun Li, Marcos A. Ferraez, Margot Robbie, Max Minghella, Olivia Wilde, Phoebe Tonkin, Samara Weaving, Shane Powers, Spike Jonze, Tobey Maguire

Summary: From Damien Chazelle, Babylon is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence andFrom Damien Chazelle, Babylon is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. … Expand

Director: Damien Chazelle

Genre(s): Drama, History, Comedy

Rating: R

Runtime: 188 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Martin Carr

Jan 5, 2023

Babylon might be messy, but original film making doesn't come much better than this. Read full review

100

Tomris Laffly

Dec 16, 2022

Babylon mostly operates in a structure of set pieces, thoroughly earning its not-a-minute-too-long runtime—a whopping 189 minutes—and it’s packed to the gills with stunning craftsmanship. Read full review

Polygon Joshua Rivera

Dec 16, 2022

Babylon marries bombast and tragedy in one fell swoop, embracing Chazelle’s hubris as an artist by letting him insert himself into the cinematic canon, while he’s endeavoring to earn his place there at the same time. Read full review

Brian Truitt

Dec 16, 2022

Even with a great turn from Brad Pitt, an impressive showing by newcomer Diego Calva and a bunch of entertaining cameos, the madcap comedy-drama can’t help but run out of creative crazy juice by the end as it unspools into cinematic sentimentality. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Dec 16, 2022

Babylon is a film that’s thinking big, aiming big, acting big: but feeling medium, and finally ordering us to care about the celluloid magic, a secondary emotional response which should be happening without any explicit instruction. Yet it’s always a pleasure to be in the presence of such black-belt movie stars as Pitt and Robbie and there is something funny in Babylon’s wild, event-movie gigantism. Read full review

Angelica Jade Bastien

Dec 22, 2022

Babylon is a film too busy writing an elegy for the still-breathing body of film as a medium to capture the true beauty and complications of being alive. Read full review

Alonso Duralde

Dec 16, 2022

It’s a hyped-up cocaine conversation of a movie, throwing out lots of ideas and images and mammoth set pieces without ever amounting to anything. Read full review

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User Reviews

DAVE83

Jan 1, 2023

Gran película. Muy infravalorada. Merecedora de todos los reconocimientos posibles de cara a la próxima edición de los Óscar.

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

amm100

Jan 4, 2023

YES I was waiting for this kind of movie. I loved BABYLON. Definitely one of my favorite movies of 2022. This movie was such a great cinematic experience (I think this movie will be much great especially if you see it in big screen).

2 of 5 users found this helpful23

holygodness

Dec 23, 2022

This movie was amazing! Acting, directing, story, cinematography… all of them were perfect. I think it’s one of my favorites of the year. Highly recommend.

11 of 18 users found this helpful117

Exceladeogun

Feb 2, 2023

Babylon

Babylon is 3 hours of movie love, an exposé and recall to Hollywood's transition from silent to sound films. With a diverse cast, Babylon fully shows how its characters navigate through the pivotal change in movie making. The first half of Babylon is an overwhelming and dazzlingBabylon

Babylon is 3 hours of movie love, an exposé and recall to Hollywood's transition from silent to sound films. With a diverse cast, Babylon fully shows how its characters navigate through the pivotal change in movie making.

The first half of Babylon is an overwhelming and dazzling display of what that time period was. But, as the movie stretches into its concluding half, the beautiful chaos that preceded quickly dwindles and the direction becomes lost, giving off the feeling that the director became too ambitious or indulgent and didn't know how to properly move his story along.

The themes of Babylon are explored without hesitance. Babylon brings a mix of identity, social mobility and climbing, and capitalistic greed with as much nudity, violence and drugs it can get away with.

If the exploration of movie making in the 1920s and 1930s isn't enough reason to see Babylon, the cast should be. Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt seamlessly weave through with a nuanced portrayal of their characters, in such a way that only well seasoned acts can. Diego Calva also delivers a revelatory performance as Manuel 'manny' Torres. The score, cinematography and locations of Babylon are also fitting.

Babylon would have been a masterpiece with restraint from its director, needing a few cuts and edits, nonetheless, it is a thrilling and entertaining piece of cinematic magic.

8/10… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Brent_Marchant

Jan 1, 2023

“Babylon” is the kind of movie that most viewers are either going to love or hate. I, for one, am one of those who’s squarely in the middle. Writer-director Damien Chazelle’s outrageous, often-hilarious, visually dazzling epic about the early days of Hollywood and the excesses that typified“Babylon” is the kind of movie that most viewers are either going to love or hate. I, for one, am one of those who’s squarely in the middle. Writer-director Damien Chazelle’s outrageous, often-hilarious, visually dazzling epic about the early days of Hollywood and the excesses that typified an emerging industry during the Roaring ʼ20s (and the attempts to rein them in during the increasingly conservative ʼ30s) tells the stories of a number of rising on-screen and off-screen stars seeking to make their way while wrestling with personal and professional demons, as well as the advances (and challenges) in using the new cinematic technologies of the era. In some regards, I like to think of this opus as one that draws from a variety of vastly different cinematic influences, most notably the curious combination of Peter Bogdanovich’s “Nickelodeon” (1976) and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” (1997), with, of course, the musical aspects from Chazelle’s own “La La Land” (2016) (despite the inherently more tawdry – and more engaging – nature of this project). Because of the narrative’s extensive breadth in terms of time frame, characters, themes and story threads, it’s not surprising to see how this offering would clock in with a runtime of 3+ hours (though there certainly are segments, such as the film’s 30-minute opening party sequence, that could have been scaled back without losing anything). With that said, however, ironically, the picture is surprisingly well paced for one of this length, thanks to the vivid visuals, superb production design, and excellent performances of a great ensemble cast, including Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Li Jun Li and Jovan Adepo, along with fine supporting roles by Jean Smart, Tobey Maguire and Eric Roberts, among others. However, considering everything that’s been crammed into this arguably overstuffed package, there are some shortcomings worth noting, such as occasionally undercooked character development and a number of visual excesses that more than push the boundaries of acceptable taste for a mainstream film (their inclusion as a nod to the picture’s title notwithstanding). Nevertheless, as this release also clearly shows, we wouldn’t have the industry that’s grown, evolved and matured over the years were it not for the ragtag pioneers of this period, despite their individual challenges and their succumbing to the temptations present in this often-dirty business. In my view, “Babylon” is certainly deserving of much of the recognition it has earned, even if some of it may at times seem questionable or misplaced. Either way, there’s no denying that this is quite the cinematic rollercoaster ride, something for which movies themselves are often the ideal vehicle.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

royalguy07

Jan 2, 2023

It had a top level soundtrack and some really great and memorable sequences. That movie montage though near the end that was a big time yikes.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

georgiadrew

Jan 1, 2023

If you want to waste $ and be in agony for 3 hours then go see this movie. Pitt must have mega gambling debts to pay for why else would he get involved in pathetic trash like this movie? No plot, poor acting, directing that goes nowhere is the result.

1 of 6 users found this helpful15

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