Unveiling one of the key (at least) «curiosity» films of the season. And the reactions to 37-year-old Damien Chazelle's return are commensurate with the expectations of the subject matter and the filmmaker's ambition: Shallow. Paramount screened the film about the early years of Hollywood yesterday, and the tweets leave a Babel of reactions that starts roughly at «masterpiece» and ends, roughly again, in the gutter. The film, by Robbie, Pitt and a prominent troupe of followers, is, according to the famously overambitious Chazelle, a «work inspired by dolce vita, the Nashville and Godfather - old-fashioned epic works that managed through a handful of characters to translate the change of society.» Enjoy reactions:
Variety's Clayton Davis saw «a lot of octuplets», «an excellent first part» and «possibly the new Internet favorite movie».
#Babylon feels like if someone read Damien Chazelle the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and then he said, “hold my beer!”
High octane, cocaine-inducing trip. First half is great. Likely the internet's new favorite movie of all-time. Margot Robbie and Justin Hurwitz are your stars. pic.twitter.com/aM3rru1so0- Clayton Davis - Stand with 🇺🇦 (@ByClaytonDavis) November 15, 2022
A Los Angeles Union critic saw something «truly monstrous» and added (correctly) that «Chazelle is probably the most confident director in Hollywood today, of course having some of the worst instincts out there.»
BABYLON: Truly monstrous in its thudding insistence on shoving the viewer's face in the muck and claiming it's something novel or moving; Chazelle might be the most confident director in Hollywood today, of course he's also got some of the worst instincts out there.
- Ryan Swen/孫天行/Sun Tianxing (@swen_ryan) November 15, 2022
Praise for Margo Robbie and composer, Justin Hewitz, is generally a constant pole of titters, with some, like Variety's Jazz Tangsay, generally seeing it as «delightful decadent phantasmagoria».
Full reviews are still under embargo for the film, which comes out December 23 in the US, but the relentless socials have continued since that first screening. Someone wrote that «the film is a Scorsese coke project from a completely clean director», another wrote of «dazzling cacophony of crazed perversity» and «outrageous portrait of the industry's hedonistic golden age», while someone said «it's a love letter to cinema that made me hate it».
Many speak of «tonal catastrophe», as many praise the work of (always interesting) Justin Herwitz in music, and one thing seems certain - although we are not in times when people are in any way interested in ’the lives of the stars«: Critics will be very divided, the Oscars basically look like they're going away, except maybe Robbie's, the relevant social media will have new causes for controversy, and Sazel, a guy who promised from the get-go that he was here to change the game and has the stomach to take it, will put another stone in his growing reputation. Now what kind of reputation that will be, the question remains. The fans are heating up, the opponents are sharpening, and the in-betweens (because the First Man made them) will watch one of those productions that were born to be talked about. And these kinds of cinematic events have been in short supply lately...
Elias Dimopoulos
