Margot Robbie is speaking out in defense of Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” the Hollywood epic that infamously stumbled with critics and audiences.
When “Babylon” premiered in 2022, it was met with a split response. There was a severe divide, and the film ultimately underperformed financially, grossing just $65M against an $100M budget. I loved its audacity, placing it in my best list that year. I loved its sheer audacity, earning a spot on my personal best-of-the-year list. Despite this, the film ultimately cost Paramount an estimated $87 million. Curiously, it found major success in France, winning over both critics and audiences—proving that good taste knows no borders.
In a recent Letterboxd, interview, Robbie passionately defended the film, calling it “an amazing movie and one I’m very, very proud of being in.” She also spoke directly to fans, joking about the film’s rocky reception at the time:
I always wondered if you people were out there, ‘cause when it got slated at the time, both critically and at the box office, I was confused ‘cause I think it’s an amazing movie, and one I’m very, very proud of being in. I always thought maybe this will be like one of those movies that 20 years later everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God, Babylon didn’t do well at the time? That’s crazy.’ I didn’t even have to wait that long. So if you love Babylon, I love you, and we think alike when it comes to movies.”
Set in the late 1920s, “Babylon,” a historical black comedy tragedy, charts the rise and fall of a colorful cast of characters as Hollywood undergoes its turbulent transition from silent films to talkies. Margot Robbie played the ambitious Nellie LaRoy, while Brad Pitt portrayed the fading silent screen star Jack Conrad.
The bolder a film dares to be, the sharper the divide in reactions. In 2022, critics often tore into Chazelle’s Babylon for its excesses—but a 57% Rotten Tomatoes score was far from fair.
Yet few major studio films this decade dared to aim as high as “Babylon,” a feat that alone should have earned this wildly frenetic epic more respect. Mirroring Robbie’s comments, Stephen King has suggested that the film is destined for a critical reappraisal in the near future.
Chazelle’s 3-hour film may be flawed, but it contains brilliantly surreal moments. It’s hard to fault a filmmaker for taking such a bold swing, and on a scene-by-scene basis, Babylon delivered plenty of cinematic thrills.