Love it or hate it. There isn’t much middle ground or neutrality regarding Damien Chazelle’s (La La Land, First Man) divisive Babylon, a fantastical look at the debaucherous look at the rise and fall of the Hollywood movie industry during the 1920s. While some might believe its 56% /52 % scores on Rotten Tomatoes suggest it’s an ordinary movie, those average scores may result from people either loving or hating it. I enjoyed the movie. It is far from being in my top ten of the year. With only a couple of 2022 films left to watch, Babylon sits at #16 (out of the 74 2022-released films I’ve seen). It’s a fine film and one that is worth viewing.
Category Archives: Lukas Haas
Widows (2018)
After watching Widows, I can very confidently say that if you team up director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Shame) and writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, HBO’s Sharp Objects), I’m going to have my butt in a theater opening weekend. I’ve heard about Widows for months and saw the trailer the day before I saw the movie. And I still haven’t seen the whole trailer. I only needed to watch the first half of it to know that it was a movie I wanted to see immediately. McQueen, who was narrowly beaten out for Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity), hardly seemed upset when, half an hour later, his 12 Years a Slave won topped Gravity (and others) for Best Picture of 2013. He’s been off the grid for the last five years (save for a few shorts), but he is back with a movie that might be better than any of his previous three masterpieces (12 Years a Slave, Shame, Hunger Strike). The only thing missing is an appearance by Michael Fassbender, but you won’t even notice.
First Man (2018)
It takes a long, long time to land on the moon. So much can be said for the research, development, and execution of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969. You can also say as much as Damien Chazelle’s (La La Land, Whiplash) lackluster First Man. Maybe Chazelle should go back to writing his screenplays. After earning Oscar nominations (adapted for Whiplash, original for La La Land) for his first two directed movies, Chazelle picked up Josh Singer’s (Spotlight, The Post) for his third directorial effort. Unfortunately, the culmination likely didn’t do either man any favors. First Man lacked energy and originality and frequently veered into disinterest in its characters and outright boredom. While the film has resonated with critics (88%), there is a sharp dropoff in the audience score (66%). While the accomplishment in First Man is an important story that needed to be told in this medium (particularly to those who weren’t even born when this achievement happened, I think it should have been spearheaded by a director who is more seasoned in the biopic genre or at least had directed a film outside of the music drama genre which has thus far defined his career.