The more explicit a film is, the more divided the reaction will be. Many film critics could not stand the excessive nature of Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon”. To the point where it is now 58% rotten on RT. Oh, well.
Over on Metacritic, “Babylon” has an impressive 7 perfect 100 scores but an overall 61 Metascore. This just goes to show the drastic love/hate reaction for this film.
Chazelle’s film might be flawed (the ending doesn’t work) but it has these batshit crazy sequences that will stay etched in my memory for a good long time. It’s very hard to completely fault a filmmaker for taking a big swing, but critics don’t care.
“Babylon” has a budget of $100 million and, ever since reviews came out last Friday, its projected $18 million opening has now gone down to $11 million (according to Box Office Report). That hasn’t stopped Paramount from signing Chazelle to a multi-year first look deal. Good for them.
It’s not that uncommon to have a Best Picture nominee veer close to rotten territory: Chocolat (63%), Bohemian Rhapsody (60%), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (45%) come to mind. However, Chazelle‘s film seems to be irritating all the right people.
Jason Bailey (an absolute clown) wrote an embarrassing review for it. Another review that seemed to come out all wrong was from Time’s Stephanie Zacharek. They both take aim, especially Zacharek, at how the movie should have been executed rather than critique how it was filmed.