Hyped to within an inch of its life, Damien Chazelle’s Babylon has flopped in the US. And guess what, audiences were right to shun it. Stuffed full of naked breasts and exuberant cussing, and including a trippy, out-of-the-blue coda (a montage of modern film classics) that will make a certain kind of teenager feel oh-so sophisticated, it is also shallow, shapeless, sentimental, judgmental, clichéd and under-funny – as well as being hellishly long.
There’s no shortage of talent amongst the cast, which includes Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. The same goes for the crew. But sadly they’re the puppets of a director unclear about what he’s trying to say.
