Paramount Pictures was very confident in Damien Chazelle’s lavish and excessive period piece “Babylon,” so much so that critics were invited to see it last night and post their social media reaction.
Such early screening reaction tends to skew gushingly positive most of the time, a glowing sentiment that often cools once proper reviews start coming out.
At other times though, it takes an unexpected direction. Such is the case with “Babylon,” which has drawn incredibly divisive reactions from various critics – some praising it, some dubbing it a disaster.
The Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, Olivia Wilde and Jean Smart-led film clocks in at just over three hours and offers a big-budget look at Hollywood and filmmaking from nearly a century ago as the industry transitioned to ‘talkies’ whilst revelling in an age of unbridled decadence and depravity.
Here’s a sampling of reactions:
A coked-up Margot Robbie projectile vomiting all over the face of a stuffy old man in a tux pretty much sums up the chaotic energy and glorious messiness of BABYLON, truly the strangest, most debaucherous love letter to Hollywood ever.
— Kevin Polowy (@djkevlar) November 15, 2022
#BabylonMovie won't be for everyone, but it is a wild, wild debaucherous ride that swings for the fences and it's an absolute spectacle of filmmaking from start to finish. I think my jaw was on the floor for most of it. La La Land fans will recognize some things 🎶
— Lauren Huff (@_LaurenHuff) November 15, 2022
Damien Chazelle brings buckets of energy to BABYLON, but it’s never not pounding and obvious and, finally, uninsightful. Everything about it is borrowed — even down to Tobey Maguire stealing the film as its Alfred Molina. A Scorsese coke film by a squeaky clean director.
— Joshua Rothkopf (@joshrothkopf) November 15, 2022
Babylon is a fever dream of a movie that’s best when it’s being a straight out comedy. The drama barely plays. Pitt and Jovan Adepo give the best performances in the movie. Robbie gives it her all but the character is so one note. Didn’t love it.
— Gregory Ellwood -The Playlist 🎬 (@TheGregoryE) November 15, 2022
I have some really — really — bad news to share with you, #Babylon’s a flaming hot mess, a tonal disaster, easily Damien Chazelle’s worst film & one of the worst films of 2022
— Erick MMT Weber (@ErickWeber) November 15, 2022
Babylon is an ambitious mess of a film. I don’t even know where to begin with this one but the tone is all over the place. Margot Robbie tries but the script fails her. A love letter to cinema that made me hate cinema. #BabylonMovie pic.twitter.com/BnKQiOz2Zd
— Scott Menzel (@ScottDMenzel) November 15, 2022
However good or bad it turns out to be, the $78 million-budgeted film is slated to be released on December 23rd.
