Babylon
“It’s really three films” and I couldn’t agree more. This was a 3-hour long epic drama full of emotion music thrill comedy tragedy everything. Composed it what was really 3 separate parts.
The first opening prologue which consisted of a more party like high-vibrance intense themes and no care in the world, leading into the lifestyle these characters call acting, now this acting is sound-less. This opening 45 minutes or so relaly sets the tone for these characters and begin the early stages of their development, showing whose got the highest ego, who fancies themselves as high-rollers and who’s just there to make something happen. Overall this section was by far the best 9/10.
The second section was more melo-dramatic expanding less on the thrill of acting but the in depth expansion and evolution of this career. Continuing into acting with sound these characters find much more struggle and problems that need to be fixed. This is where the most comedy is found, trying to lighten the mood on all the bad things happening, while still keeping all the main characters somewhat interlocked. 8/10
Then the Epilogue, way to long in my opinion, consists of going more in depth in each character showing where they fell after each of these new big changes that occur. With a random side-quest thrown in there for Manny, each character got a way to finish off their climax. This part was by far the most serious and I’d like to say most unexpected and stressful. Giving each character a proper send off. 7/10
All said, this film was of very high intensity circling through the major aspects of film and the evolution of filming. All while carefully building and exploring a multitude of characters who each played a role in constructing or keeping this new media built. One of my favorite films of all time Magnolia did something similar, taking multiple characters, interrelating them in an epic drama. Now what Babylon did differently is instead of letting each character build separately and fade off at the end, all the characters started together in the prologue, built relationships with one another, then drifted apart. Was it well done sure, do I have any major complaints, no. The acting was solid, music was exceptional, the camera-work was incredible, and just the whole plot was great. Would recommend 8/10