After a very underwhelming showing in Los Angeles, Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” somewhat bounced back on Wednesday night at its New York screening.
This is good news for Chazelle’s film. If he had NY and L.A. critics firmly against “Babylon” then the film would be DOA comes its December release date. Alas. the likes of Eric Kohn, Bilge Ebiri, Jordan Hoffman, Tomris Laffly, and David Sims have proclaimed their support for “Babylon” online.
There are still plenty of people that vehemently disliked the film, but that is to be expected for such a lengthy (3+ hours) and deranged movie. I currently have “Babylon” in my Best Picture predictions (#10) and I don’t think I’ll take it off just yet.
To its advantage, it has people talking and word of mouth, even if polarizing, is a powerful thing. Now, the reviews just need to be good and at the moment Paramount has planted a firm embargo that I hear won’t get lifted until December.