Babylon (2022)

Babylon was a film I had high hopes for when I saw the trailer. It starred Margot Robbie and Brad Pit and was directed by Damien Chazelle who directed Whiplash which is a film I love and La La Land which has got a certain charm that this film was sadly lacking. The film is set in the late 1920s when excess seems to be normalised. The film starts with an elephant taking a dump on the camera which shows what sort of film we are in for.

The problem ultimately with the film is despite the excesses that are shown in painstaking detail, the film never feels like a film. Even the homage at the end feels somewhat forced and so what could have been a fun trip into a bygone period just feels seedy and a bit unnecessary. I had the same feeling when watching ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. I thought the sex and drug taking went on a bit too long and the film suffered (its still awesome by the way). Margot Robbie is fine as Nellie but it would be nice to see her tackle a different accent as all her characters come from New York. Nothing wrong with the by the way but a bit of variety would be nice. Brad Pitt did seem to be a bit on auto pilot throughout this film. He’s still fun but the film could have done with a bit more energy from him. By far the best thing about this film is Tobey Maguire (never thought I would write that). It was this point that the film actually got good and felt like there was a point to the story but before I had time to enjoy what was happening, it was over.

Babylon is one of the more disappointing experiences at the cinema. It’s not terrible by any means but I think that this is a classic example of style over substance. Normally I would say that that's not a problem when the style is so good but in Babylon’s case, the style isn’t as good as it could have been.

Empire of Light (2022)

Empire of Light is the first film that I saw at the cinema in 2023 and part of my ongoing mission to see more films at the cinema. I was a big fan of Sam Mendes as I loved his two Bond films with Skyfall being (in my opinion), the best Bond film ever. I also think that 1917 was a brilliant film that I wanted to see what he would come up with next and its fair to say that Empire of Light is about as different from 1917 as it is possible to get. Empire of Light is about Hilary (Olivia Colman) who gets romantically involved with Stephen (Michael Ward) whilst working in a cinema in the 1980’s. 

The performances in this film are brilliant. The sentence ‘Olivia Colman is really good’ is one that should be expected because I can’t remember the last time I saw her give a bad performance. She comes across as likeable and vulnerable. When she has her breakdown its incredibly sad to watch and it’s because Colman makes you care. Michael Ward is someone that I wasn’t aware of before this film and gives a superb

The cinema is a character and I wanted to spend a lot more time there because the way that it was shot made it feel like it was the sort of cinema that I would want to visit. The cinemas within driving distance of me are nice, clean and comfortable but they never feel like they have a personality. This film shows you how important these cinemas are especially in the post pandemic world.