A movie with Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Lost City, Bullet Train) and Margot Robbie (Bombshell, The Suicide Squad, Amsterdam)? Sign me up was what I said when I heard this was a thing. Babylon is one of those movies that I was going to wait to be released on streaming, but there was nothing else on so we decided to check it out and it was a fun time. It has a fantastic ensemble cast and it is the kind of comedy-drama hybrid that makes you laugh and also makes you feel for some of the characters too.
How to Download Babylon
You should expect to be able to download the film from Paramount+ sometime after its theatrical release. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the current availability
The Movie Review
There was not much I knew about the movie before I saw it, I knew that it had Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt in it and I knew it was set during the dying days of silent movies in Hollywood, but that was it. Had I known that the movie was three hours long, I may not have been quite as willing to sit in a theatre and watch it.
Now, that runtime may make you say “nope” however, Babylon does not feel like a three-hour movie. Babylon also has one of the craziest opening scenes I have ever seen in a movie. We meet an aspiring Mexican filmmaker called Manny who is undertaking a job where he has to take an elephant to one of the hedonistic parties of movie studio exec Don Wallach.
What goes on at this party is just crazy, it is full of drugs, sex, rock and roll, and pretty much every vice you could imagine and the movie revels in it. We have all heard about how crazy the parties could be in the early days of Hollywood and the movie does a great job showcasing this.
At this part, Manny meets wannabee starlet, Nellie and the two hit it off. Look, there are many characters, and many twisting and interconnected plots, but the basics of what we have going on here are Hollywood is moving on from the silent movie era to the “golden era” where actors could actually speak in their movies!
Going back to that three-hour run time a second, the ensemble cast here is what makes those three hours zoom by. You never feel like you are with one character or one scene too long. The movie moves at 100 mph and to be honest with you, I am not sure what they could have cut to get that runtime down!
The movie is hilarious and Damien Chazelle, who wrote and directed it, has captured this era of Hollywood with so much style. This is one of the best-looking movies I have seen, I love the 20s set design, costumes, and whole style of the game. It is great stuff and gets you even more invested in the movie it truly is amazing stuff and makes me wish I could have as much style as these 20s movie stars!
It is worth me pointing out that this movie is pretty hardcore in every regard. It has a ton of very explicit sex scenes, drug use, violence, and a whole lot of bad language! The idea is to capture the whole hedonistic style of Hollywood and it is something the movie could not have pulled off any better.
I have to say that Babylon was a fantastic time. I am so glad that I knew so little about the movie before I saw it and I would advise that you do the same thing. Do not be put off by that runtime as the movie never stops for a single second. It is great in pretty much every regard, even if my butt was a bit sore by the end of it!
