Babylon

This film is indulgent and far too long. Is it a vehicle for Margot Robbie? Is it a reminder that Brad Pitt is still hot, or that Flea can act? Is it a love story or a documentary about how audio changed the film industry?

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This movie relies on strong visuals to hold our attention: decadent party scenes, battlefields full of men and horses, behind-the-scenes shots of musical numbers, etc., to move the story along. But what is the story?

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We follow three people who are unable to keep up with the shift in movie making, and by the end, when most everyone is dead, we’re happy because most everyone is insufferably egotistical.

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I’m not saying the big visuals aren’t impressive, they are, but they’re not enough to carry this film.

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Ultimately, it's Diego Calva's character who carries the film but his arc is more like a gentle curve. He goes from being a kind, hardworking person, to being a hardworking person, to being a kind, hardworking person whose life took a turn because he was a bit too kind.

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The majority of a scene given to one of the executive producers, Tobey Maquire, could have been left on the cutting room floor.

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Again, the producers relied on the visual effect rather than considering how much is necessary to get the point across. They weren't thinking about their audience - who’ve already sat through 2 and a half hours of Margot's character being a house on fire - having to sit through 10 more unnecessary minutes of "shocking" grotesqueness for us to see the difference in the way people were having a good time in Hollywood.

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What I did like is seeing how that geographical location was like before the development of the studios and infrastructure were built up, how the movie industry was forced to take on regulation so people didn’t die in the storytelling.

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And there is one poignant scene in which the middle-aged journalist character, played by Jean Smart, steals the movie when she tells it like it really is.

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This movie was a box-office bomb and lost Paramount Studios 87 million dollars. And, yes, Brad Pitt is still hot.