Babylon (2022) dir. Damien Chazelle

Babylon (2022)

It's hard to review films like this I think. A bit like Tree of Life, they're more like streams of consciousness: an experience of feelings and images. Or a meandering experience like La Dolce Vita. So to try put it into regular words doesn't really sum it up. They're indescribable, and is personal to everyone who watches it. But here's an attempt at some words:

Babylon is a film for the ages, of life and the journeys we all go on, in our careers and our personal lives. Change and being stuck. The world passing us by. It's an ode to cinema and life itself, the ebbs and flows. The ending sequence points to the art of film completely. About the birth and circular flow of film and the world, and the passion that comes for film, almost on the verge of madness. To dedicate onself completely to film as if all the emotions and questions can be found on that screen, in the ring of light shining up there. Of course there's some weird, crazy stuff in there, surreal stuff, but that's just like life at times right?

It's sad in a way how it's been received, and how the box office has been, but for anyone whose ever been mad about film I think it speaks to them. It speaks from Chazelle's soul and the love he has for the 'movies'. This is a film for films, films within films and films dedicated to films (wow I've said films a lot).

A swansong