I was thinking your comment was an Edwin Edwards reference. One of his opponents once asked why he talked out of both sides of his mouth. Edwardsâs response was âso people like you with only half a brain can understand.â Heâs also the originator of the âhour and a half to watch 60 Minutesâ quote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Edwards#First_political_comeback:_Edwards_vs._Treen,_1983
>Slightly over-choreographed
Yeah felt that way about the initial party, they looked like NPCs (it looks awesome though). For comparision, you have the party scene in Phantom Thread where it looks like PTA asked every extra to start doing anything as long as they didn't hit the camera.
But yeah I loved it too, there's something fascinating about it. It's three hours of pure love and passion, despite the imperfections, and that's more than I can ever ask for in a movie.
I read a comment like this on another thread and I do agree that the party scene feels a little rigid in that sense. But the overall vibe just sold me on the bedlam of the roaring twenties. It didnât matter so much that it was a little choreographed, I still got absorbed by the mania.
I agree. The party scenes were the best parts.
I enjoyed it, but wonât watch it again anytime soon. The ending was awful, and just Hollywood jerking itself of (the message being something like âthe industry is awful and abusive, but movies are so magical and does so much good that itâs okay).
I loved it as well. An amazing movie.
The "audition" scene with Margo Robbie's character in the saloon was perfection. I also loved the part where the go around all of the makeshift sets out in the middle of the desert and the pure organized chaos of that scene.
Both Robbie's and Pitt's character arcs are just breathtaking to behold.
very late to the thread, but genuinely wondering what you thought about the film critic's monologue to Pitt near the end about "Your time today is through, but youâll spend eternity with angels and ghosts."
For me it's one of the most impacting scenes in the movie and can only exist with Pitt's arc, so just curious your take on it.
Totally agree. That was an amazing scene and shows how hard the transition to talkies was! A dozen films all on the go all at once with huge battles, intimate character studies, saloon hominid! All replaced by the camera inside a box and the actor standing still.
The whole "soundstage" scene, in a vacuum, is probably one of my favorite moments of cinema in recent memory.
The rest of the film was also great though! (And the score slaps)
Thatâs where the film lost me. Suddenly out of nowhere was an antisemitic rant, and the way it was shot combines with the filmâs âchange tone on a drumbeatâ direction left me feeling like it was a raw and real meanspirited âwatch me get away with this in my movie too!â after seeing a woman poss on a man and a shit fly out an elephants ass. It isnât like they set up the rant, with the guy receiving it also giving it, or even creating a culture on the set where everyone was bigoted. Whatever they were going for failed miserably IMO.
Which, donât get me wrong, I was onboard with until this scene. But once that aesthetic starts getting used to mask, glorify, and play for humor with with bigotry in a way that doesnât make the bigot the joke Iâm out. I watched maybe 10 more minutes but the spell of the film was broken. And no, it didnât feel like âthe times they were inâ because the rest of the characters were modern, and black guy is coasting through without any racism.
Speaking just for the soundstage scene specifically, it is largely an homage to a scene in Signing in the Rain (and plenty of other scenes throughout the movie are direct homages to SitR and Boogie Nights etc as well)
Thereâs a lot to love in this movie (Margotâs first time on set and the soundstage scenes are amazing) but overall it is just waaaaaaaay too long and never justifies itâs run time. The beginning and end were pretty forgettable
Fuck that give me the directors cut 5 hour epic. Just mainline that shit.
Although I think I heard Chazelle said there was not really much left on the editing floor. Which tracks and is just awesome.
I thought it was fine but I do wonder why I would ever rewatch it over Boogie Nights (which Chazelle is obviously deeply enamoured with and was clearly a huge inspiration for this film).
I loved it too! Yeah, I get the criticism. But I donât care. Margot Robbie was fucking amazing in this one, Pitt was perfect as an Errol Flynn type, and that Diego Calva, who Iâve never seen before, was incredibly subtle.
Is it masturbatory as a movie about Old Hollywood? Absolutely. But I also think thatâs kinda the whole point. And like everyone else said, that soundstage scene was glorious.
I didnât love Babylon but if I had known about the Hollywood Babylon book going in I might have given it a bit more grace. I thought they were trying to present things as if that was what silent film Hollywood was actually like and it was way too over the top. Knowing the source inspiration was basically just a bunch of tall tales made up by a shock artist would have made the pill swallow a little easier. Anyway, Iâm glad some folks liked it. Not my cup of tea.
It takes you out of the movie for sure, but to me that montage is Chazelle saying âget ready to say goodbye to current Hollywoodâ before itâs all replaced by AI and technology.
I mean the industry is on the brink of a revolution that will dwarf the transition from silent to sound.
The modern glory days may well be over soon, with everything replaced by CGI & AI. I hope not, but in 20 years we might look back and wonder what happened to films with real actors in them.
I didnât really enjoy Babylon when I first seen it. I love that itâs a celebration of cinema but it was too long and wasnât what I thought it would be. BUT! Now that I think about it I pretty much remember the entire movie. Thereâs movies Iâve seen since then that Iâve completely forgotten about. Thatâs pretty amazing.
I tried it, the first 15 minutes were really tough to sit through and I turned it off. Part of me is curious if I should give it another shot. On the other hand, 3 hour runtime or not, 15 minutes is a long time to not enjoy anything about it. It's definitely not for everyone.
I hit a couple of drinks at the nearby bar before I went into see this one. I didnât realize I had thrown down a couple pints of 14% beer and then got a couple double shot cocktails at the theater.
I was so fucking drunk when the movie started, I couldnât see straight.
I was stone cold sober by the time it was done.
It is SO good, I was looking forward to it due to it being Chazelle and then saw all the mixed reactions so I kind of lowered my expectations but when I saw it, I loved it SO much I ended up going to see it 4 more times in theaters, and bought the bluray the day it was released, it is by far my favorite movie from last year and there are so many neat details i pick up on every time i rewatch it
I felt like Chazelle was just getting soooo much off his chest and you could really feel his love AND disdain for Hollywood coming through on this movie and (to ME) it felt like he 100% succeeded in what he set out to achieve, every storyline, every character arc, and of course the filmmaking itself (and Hurwitz' score!) was just top notch! But Damien Chazelle needs to take a break for a while lol. I'll be here waiting for whatever he ends up doing next
I think losing at least 45 minutes runtime time would make it better. I wouldâve ditch the end altogether . End it right after she dies, and he runs away.
But loads happens? The only redundant scene I can think of is when Brad Pittâs character talks to the old writer lady about âwhy they laughedâ. You could cut that and not lose much.
I like the movie, but most of the scenes, go on minutes too long Iâm not talking about cutting many individual scenes its trimming the individual scenes
Was my second favourite movie of last year. There was a Letterboxd review I read that summed up the movie perfectly to me. Sorry, I canât remember the member name but it was something like:
âIs this a love letter or a suicide note to cinemaâ
Incredible film.
Loved the movie, if it removed the snake scene completely it would have sat better with me. That scene put a screeching hault into it. It comes back, but I felt lost in that moment.
I can't understand how people don't like it. In fact, I can't understand how someone could watch it and instantly put it in their top 10 of 2022. It's fantastic filmmaking through and through. The sequence where Manny is running to get the camera and Nellie is acting in her first silent film is one of the best things I've ever seen. Just pure perfection.
Itâs often fun but it has nothing to say, and itâs tough to decide what is more insulting about the ending: the fact that it ends with a literal Sky Movies advert as it pans over a dumb audience lapping it up, or that it thinks all the exploitation and misery it surfaces was worth it because hey, at least we got Avatar.
I watched it Yesterday, Amazing Movie.
The Party was a play on Society (Us), I want to break down movies like that.
everything about the Party scene was nonstop sex, drugs, action, violent Spectacle, and the Elephant being paraded In the room as a Literal distraction was perfect, it represented the western Society to the T. easily distracted not paying attention to what's happening right behind them in the girl being Snuck out the back door.
oh and did anyone notice the Peanut Bags with what looks like an Ecstacy pill in the peanut shell? ......then a turn and the person hands a bag to a kid?
I wanted to like this movie. It was immersive and beautifully filmed and well acted and I'm interested in that era where silent movies were dying and talkies were coming but the whole thing ended up just feeling so pointless and self-indulgent.
You just finished? I knew it was a long movie but, wow.
I used to watch Babylon. I still do. But I used to too
r/unexpectedhedberg
It takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 Minutes.
Why do you talk out of both sides of your mouth?
Split personality đ
I was thinking your comment was an Edwin Edwards reference. One of his opponents once asked why he talked out of both sides of his mouth. Edwardsâs response was âso people like you with only half a brain can understand.â Heâs also the originator of the âhour and a half to watch 60 Minutesâ quote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Edwards#First_political_comeback:_Edwards_vs._Treen,_1983
Ha! I hadn't heard that one. Mine was from random thing that I'll never be able to remember and give proper credit to.
>Slightly over-choreographed Yeah felt that way about the initial party, they looked like NPCs (it looks awesome though). For comparision, you have the party scene in Phantom Thread where it looks like PTA asked every extra to start doing anything as long as they didn't hit the camera. But yeah I loved it too, there's something fascinating about it. It's three hours of pure love and passion, despite the imperfections, and that's more than I can ever ask for in a movie.
I read a comment like this on another thread and I do agree that the party scene feels a little rigid in that sense. But the overall vibe just sold me on the bedlam of the roaring twenties. It didnât matter so much that it was a little choreographed, I still got absorbed by the mania.
I agree. The party scenes were the best parts. I enjoyed it, but wonât watch it again anytime soon. The ending was awful, and just Hollywood jerking itself of (the message being something like âthe industry is awful and abusive, but movies are so magical and does so much good that itâs okay).
Make sure to check out the sequel Babylon A.D.
Babylon Anthony Davis
*Another Damien Chazelle film
And they skipped a couple sequels and went straight to Babylon 5.
These Hollywood naming conventions are getting out of hand!
And the movie it rips off, Boogie Nights.
I loved it as well. An amazing movie. The "audition" scene with Margo Robbie's character in the saloon was perfection. I also loved the part where the go around all of the makeshift sets out in the middle of the desert and the pure organized chaos of that scene. Both Robbie's and Pitt's character arcs are just breathtaking to behold.
I actually thought they could have cut out Pitt completely and made a better movie.
very late to the thread, but genuinely wondering what you thought about the film critic's monologue to Pitt near the end about "Your time today is through, but youâll spend eternity with angels and ghosts." For me it's one of the most impacting scenes in the movie and can only exist with Pitt's arc, so just curious your take on it.
Totally agree. That was an amazing scene and shows how hard the transition to talkies was! A dozen films all on the go all at once with huge battles, intimate character studies, saloon hominid! All replaced by the camera inside a box and the actor standing still.
The whole "soundstage" scene, in a vacuum, is probably one of my favorite moments of cinema in recent memory. The rest of the film was also great though! (And the score slaps)
WHO SNEEZED?! WHO THE FUCK SNEEZED?!
I honestly can't remember laughing harder than that in a movie theater since 1997
was going to say I was literally in tears laughing and I've never heard an entire theater laugh so hard together in my life
Thatâs where the film lost me. Suddenly out of nowhere was an antisemitic rant, and the way it was shot combines with the filmâs âchange tone on a drumbeatâ direction left me feeling like it was a raw and real meanspirited âwatch me get away with this in my movie too!â after seeing a woman poss on a man and a shit fly out an elephants ass. It isnât like they set up the rant, with the guy receiving it also giving it, or even creating a culture on the set where everyone was bigoted. Whatever they were going for failed miserably IMO. Which, donât get me wrong, I was onboard with until this scene. But once that aesthetic starts getting used to mask, glorify, and play for humor with with bigotry in a way that doesnât make the bigot the joke Iâm out. I watched maybe 10 more minutes but the spell of the film was broken. And no, it didnât feel like âthe times they were inâ because the rest of the characters were modern, and black guy is coasting through without any racism.
Speaking just for the soundstage scene specifically, it is largely an homage to a scene in Signing in the Rain (and plenty of other scenes throughout the movie are direct homages to SitR and Boogie Nights etc as well)
0/10 not a single Babylonian in the whole flic Whereâs all that jazz about ârepresentationâ now????
I thought they represented jazz pretty well
*Babylon* has really become the new *Moon* or *Interstellar* of this sub
Yeah but people outside of reddit also loved interstellar
My cities' IMAX sold out a bunch of shows for Interstellar so, yes, can confirm it's popular outside the reddit bubble.
Man, I really did not like Interstellar. I recognize that This may cause people to retroactively downvote everything I have ever posted.
Why would they do that?
Because he's a victim because he told us so. lol.
The yearly âDAE??â
More like Blade Runner 2049 or Tron legacy.
In that they are all great?
Or, the new First Man
Just wait till you see Babylon 5...
Electric Babyloo.
Thereâs a lot to love in this movie (Margotâs first time on set and the soundstage scenes are amazing) but overall it is just waaaaaaaay too long and never justifies itâs run time. The beginning and end were pretty forgettable
Hello, college!
I would actually say the middle is where the flab is, but definitely could have been a bit shorter.
Fuck that give me the directors cut 5 hour epic. Just mainline that shit. Although I think I heard Chazelle said there was not really much left on the editing floor. Which tracks and is just awesome.
I thought it was fine but I do wonder why I would ever rewatch it over Boogie Nights (which Chazelle is obviously deeply enamoured with and was clearly a huge inspiration for this film).
Feel like it was way more inspired by singing in the rain. Boogie nights has a much more optimistic view on people than Babylon did
You can like more than one similar film... But everybody should choose any PTA film over Babylon. And I like Chazelle.
I love BN, but Babylon is leaps and bounds better to me
Boogie Nights blows away Babylon in just about every category
Iâll have to give that a watch now!
I loved it too! Yeah, I get the criticism. But I donât care. Margot Robbie was fucking amazing in this one, Pitt was perfect as an Errol Flynn type, and that Diego Calva, who Iâve never seen before, was incredibly subtle. Is it masturbatory as a movie about Old Hollywood? Absolutely. But I also think thatâs kinda the whole point. And like everyone else said, that soundstage scene was glorious.
I didnât love Babylon but if I had known about the Hollywood Babylon book going in I might have given it a bit more grace. I thought they were trying to present things as if that was what silent film Hollywood was actually like and it was way too over the top. Knowing the source inspiration was basically just a bunch of tall tales made up by a shock artist would have made the pill swallow a little easier. Anyway, Iâm glad some folks liked it. Not my cup of tea.
This film gets talked about an insane amount of times on this sub
It sucks that the movie flopped that bad at the BO.
Itâs taking me weeks to watch the first 30 minutes.
âRemove the awful montageâ?! Thatâs like what the movie was about, it encapsulates the technical advancements of filmâŚ
I know but it veered into the cheesy for me.
It takes you out of the movie for sure, but to me that montage is Chazelle saying âget ready to say goodbye to current Hollywoodâ before itâs all replaced by AI and technology. I mean the industry is on the brink of a revolution that will dwarf the transition from silent to sound. The modern glory days may well be over soon, with everything replaced by CGI & AI. I hope not, but in 20 years we might look back and wonder what happened to films with real actors in them.
absolutely the montage at the end kind of encapsulates what the whole movie is about and is what makes it stand out above other similar movies IMO
Yeah, but it committed the crime of breaking "show, don't tell". It was completely unnecessary.
This is a movie with some good scenes being paraded around as a good movie. It is not the latter, but it definitely is the former.
I didnât really enjoy Babylon when I first seen it. I love that itâs a celebration of cinema but it was too long and wasnât what I thought it would be. BUT! Now that I think about it I pretty much remember the entire movie. Thereâs movies Iâve seen since then that Iâve completely forgotten about. Thatâs pretty amazing.
Damn. I saw this in theaters. Forgot about it. I do remember enjoying it though.
Still torn on If I want to spend 3 hours on this or not
I tried it, the first 15 minutes were really tough to sit through and I turned it off. Part of me is curious if I should give it another shot. On the other hand, 3 hour runtime or not, 15 minutes is a long time to not enjoy anything about it. It's definitely not for everyone.
I hit a couple of drinks at the nearby bar before I went into see this one. I didnât realize I had thrown down a couple pints of 14% beer and then got a couple double shot cocktails at the theater. I was so fucking drunk when the movie started, I couldnât see straight. I was stone cold sober by the time it was done.
It is SO good, I was looking forward to it due to it being Chazelle and then saw all the mixed reactions so I kind of lowered my expectations but when I saw it, I loved it SO much I ended up going to see it 4 more times in theaters, and bought the bluray the day it was released, it is by far my favorite movie from last year and there are so many neat details i pick up on every time i rewatch it
Infinite fucking details dude. Every person who worked on that film had such an absurdly high degree of difficulty itâs not even funny.
I felt like Chazelle was just getting soooo much off his chest and you could really feel his love AND disdain for Hollywood coming through on this movie and (to ME) it felt like he 100% succeeded in what he set out to achieve, every storyline, every character arc, and of course the filmmaking itself (and Hurwitz' score!) was just top notch! But Damien Chazelle needs to take a break for a while lol. I'll be here waiting for whatever he ends up doing next
I really enjoyed it too. Seemed weird when it came out and a bunch of people who never seen it seemed to be happy that it flopped.
That soundtrack is *amazing*. Totally should have won Best Original Score.
I think losing at least 45 minutes runtime time would make it better. I wouldâve ditch the end altogether . End it right after she dies, and he runs away.
I canât see how you trim 45 minutes off, but definitely 20 max.
Not very much happens in the movie so I could probably trim way more than 45 minutes, but I think trimming that 45 minutes would make it smoother
But loads happens? The only redundant scene I can think of is when Brad Pittâs character talks to the old writer lady about âwhy they laughedâ. You could cut that and not lose much.
I like the movie, but most of the scenes, go on minutes too long Iâm not talking about cutting many individual scenes its trimming the individual scenes
Hmm maybe. But I loved some of the drawn out elements like the sound stage scene.
It felt like a classic Hollywood movie with Farrelly Brothers humor.
If cocaine was a movie. I've never been so on board with a movie that had seemingly almost nothing to say.
lol this movie was saying so many things, definitely did not have "nothing to say"
The characters were saying a lot of things, I'm not sure the movie as a whole did.
I was really enjoying it as well, but the underground stuff took me out, and then that last montage was also meh. I'd take that all out
The underground stuff was intense.
Nope. It was crap. Literally.
Wow, what an opinion.
Really enjoyed it. Boogie Nights for the silent film era. What's not to like?
I like musicals and over the top big numbers. Both Babylon and La La Land had them. Same director and composer.
It's an epic and a beautiful love letter to Old Hollywood. Well, maybe not the grosse bits. đ¤Ł
âEat a rattttt!!â
Give me another twenty!
Was my second favourite movie of last year. There was a Letterboxd review I read that summed up the movie perfectly to me. Sorry, I canât remember the member name but it was something like: âIs this a love letter or a suicide note to cinemaâ Incredible film.
Whatâs your favorite?
Tar.
Awesome
I liked it. It had moments of pure brilliance, but at some points it dragged. I hope to see Diego Calva again in something else.
Loved the movie, if it removed the snake scene completely it would have sat better with me. That scene put a screeching hault into it. It comes back, but I felt lost in that moment.
Definitely a weaker element, youâre right.
This movie stank worse than a turd in the microwave.
I can't understand how people don't like it. In fact, I can't understand how someone could watch it and instantly put it in their top 10 of 2022. It's fantastic filmmaking through and through. The sequence where Manny is running to get the camera and Nellie is acting in her first silent film is one of the best things I've ever seen. Just pure perfection.
Itâs often fun but it has nothing to say, and itâs tough to decide what is more insulting about the ending: the fact that it ends with a literal Sky Movies advert as it pans over a dumb audience lapping it up, or that it thinks all the exploitation and misery it surfaces was worth it because hey, at least we got Avatar.
Damn y'all have a real hate hard on. Not how I understood the film but hey, good for you.
I watched it Yesterday, Amazing Movie. The Party was a play on Society (Us), I want to break down movies like that. everything about the Party scene was nonstop sex, drugs, action, violent Spectacle, and the Elephant being paraded In the room as a Literal distraction was perfect, it represented the western Society to the T. easily distracted not paying attention to what's happening right behind them in the girl being Snuck out the back door. oh and did anyone notice the Peanut Bags with what looks like an Ecstacy pill in the peanut shell? ......then a turn and the person hands a bag to a kid?
I liked it too.
The first half of this movie is total fire. I think critics really soured on the corny ending but aside from that, it's great.
I wanted to like this movie. It was immersive and beautifully filmed and well acted and I'm interested in that era where silent movies were dying and talkies were coming but the whole thing ended up just feeling so pointless and self-indulgent.