Babylon

Directed by Damien Chazelle

fast, slow, fast, fast, slow...

You cannot mention this title without mentioning the soundtrack and the cinematography, it's wonderfully chaotic, but at the same time you never get lost in all the visual noise. It's messy and grand, and yet it maintains the visual clarity and crispiness of the picture. Fortunately that kind of balance applies to more elements of the movie. Pacing wise, it starts off incredibly fast and pulls you into a whirlwind of events and flashing lights, makes your head spin with wonder! But then it stops, and just when you've had enough time to catch your breath, just when you thought you were out, it pulls you back in. The pacing it manages to achieve is incredible, it's varied but never feels out of place. On the contrary! The difference in speed between, say, the party scene and the conversation between Jack and Elinor is shocking, but it's balanced. I usually don't like movies that are over 2 hours long, they feel stale and leave a bad aftertaste, you can never really process the whole movie if u watch it in one sitting, but suprisingly I have no problem with the runtime here. This movie absolutely needs to take it's sweet time with some scenes. For example: if the college scene was shortened by even one take this movie would suffer a huge loss! It works precisely because it's so strung out and lengthy. It makes you feel the exhaustion of these characters quite intimately.

Although i do have to admit, the final act could be cut by a few minutes. I do not care for the montage, it insists upon itself. I understand the purpose of the whole montage, but it makes the viewer feel like an idiot. It feels as if it was put there in case the viewer didn't understand the movie, so Chazelle can now scream at your face "DO YOU GET WHAT THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE POINT????". I'd be happier if it just cut to Manny's face and credits rolled. You may have noticed that i haven't really talked about the story itself, and that's because i feel like this movie isn't really about the story or the characters, all of that just serves as a tool to discuss broader themes. In a vacuum, the story isn't bad, you can never guess where it's headed next, and it's very wild and unrestrained. But at the same time, i don't feel like it's a GREAT story. It doesn't feel as well defined as Chazelle's earlier work, if u compare it to whiplash or la la land it is sort of all over the place. Although that might be just because of the multi-plot nature of this movie.

The moviest movie movie that ever movied/10

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