After some pondering, I decided to not make the trip to New York tonight due to still recovering from illness. I’ll instead be watching Babylon in a little over ten days. All that’s left for me to screen this year, before I write my ten best list, are “Babylon,” “Emancipation,” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Two press and industry screenings of “Babylon” are taking place tonight at Lincoln Square in NYC. Will New York critics be kinder to the film than their West Coast counterparts?
The first 2pm screening has just ended and the continuous polarizing reactions have got me very excited for this one. I mean, how boring would it be if it was unanimously praised? That would have meant it wasn’t as insanely realized as I had first heard. I expect something wildly outrageous. Don’t disappoint me, Chazelle.
I’ll be updating this throughout the evening as more reactions come in:
Eric Kohn (IndieWire): BABYLON sure bathes in the bacchanal of Old Hollywood. My eyes were never bored; my brain is still catching up. But it has the best ending of the year, one of the all-time hat tips to the cinema.
David Ehrlich (IndieWire): Babylon works best when it feels like the people who made the movie were doing as much cocaine as the people they were making it about, but it sure is nice to get served a full meal these days, bones & all. the ending is so galaxy brain silly-dumb I simply refuse not to love it.
Peter Howell (Toronto Star): Over-the-top ode to Old Hollywood turns into a bad MAD Magazine parody of itself. Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt are game but wasted by scattershot script. Diego Calva and Jean Smart impress despite the chaos, which includes flung elephant dung. Damien Chazelle's folly?
Jordan Hoffman (The Guardian): BABYLON rules! 1,000 hours of half-naked Margot Robbie running around like a maniac, Brad Pitt bullshitting in Italian, elephants taking a dump, projectile vomiting, nonstop jazz! What a picture!!!!
Jason Bailey (The Playlist): BABYLON … Well dude, you had a good run
Esther Zuckerman (Thrillist): Gonna be a lot of OPINIONS about Babylon on this app (I am pretty pro at least while my head is still spinning$ but I think we can all agree Justin Hurwitz can write a fucking score
Allison Willmore (Vulture): Damien Chazelle’s way too uptight to make the ode to chaotic excess this strives to be, and the INTOLERENCE-y intercutting conveys stress more than anything else, but idk man, it’s impossible not to at least be a little won over by something this sprawling in its reach
Tomris Laffly (RogerEbert): When filmmakers nod to (or copy) Scorsese’s dizzying level of non-stop, immersive energy, they oftentimes do so b/c it’s cool, w/o really understanding the why. NOT Damien Chazelle. There’s excess in his dazzling BABYLON, but it’s studious in its references & damn entertaining.
Kristy Puchko (Freelance): If you thought Triangle of Sadness was going to be the most bodily fluid-spewing awards contender this year, wait until you see Babylon.
David Rooney (THR): At the NYC premiere of BABYLON, from left, moderator Josh Horowitz, Damien Chazelle, Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo & Li Jun Li. Reviews embargoed until December so for now I’ll just say this is A LOT of movie & leave it to other folks to Babble On.
David Sims (The Atlantic): I think BABYLON is good. I might have trimmed a couple hours but the indulgence, the dorky coke goblin energy, the sincere ridiculousness of it…I gotta doff my cap
Eli Glasner (CBC): Babylon - La La Land by way of Requiem for a Dream, with an aspiring smidge of Hail Caesar and a wall of sound like you've never heard. Prepare yourself. You can't, but try anyway.
Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair): Why do such a disservice to the medium you love
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.