“This is a movie that could win Best Picture,” David Poland recently said about Damien Chazellle‘s Babylon (Paramount, 12.23). “It’s about Hollywood, it has two major stars doing major star work, and while it shocks and horrifies in certain ways, it is, more often than not, entertaining as hell.”
I’m a fan of Chazelle’s uncompromised, bold-as-brass approach to making Babylon — you certainly can’t say he holds back or applies half-measures. He really splashes passion paint upon the canvas in a way that Eric von Stroheim would have approved of.
But Babylon, sadly, is not an Academy-friendly film, and Poland knows this. He’s bending over backwards to be as supportive as possible, and I understand the impulse as I feel that bravura filmmaking of this sort, however brash or grotesque or off-putting as it is from time to time, shouldn’t be trashed. Auteurist energy of this sort should be applauded, as least by the standard of “A for effort..”
Poland knows that Babylon hasn’t a prayer of being Best Picture-nominated, much less winning. He knows this, and yet he claims “it could win Best Picture.”
Poland: “When I first saw the film, a few weeks ago, I was overwhelmed by the relentlessness of it, I admit. It felt like being force-fed a 20 course meal… like young geese being stuffed for foie gras.
“I don’t know if it’s Robbie or Pitt’s best work… but you won’t see any work from them that is better than this. Margot Robbie is the Energizer bunny…she will not stop. It’s like watching, in one film, the best and the worst of desperation and manic depression. Stunning performance. Brad Pitt is pretty much the exact opposite, style-wise. His character is already a virtual deity, so the performance is all in his eyes, careful physicality, and in the performance of the script.
“Don’t fear the elephant shit. Honestly, if the MPA would allow it, I’d be doing TV spots with it.”