This?

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Babel

Saw this today. Worst kind of Oscar-grabbing kind of self-serious 'we are the world - if only we'd listen' kind of crap. Well, maybe it isn't quite that PC, but it sure as hell is about three times as long as it needs to be. Coincidentally, it tells three parallel and entirely unrelated stories, cutting back and forth between them in a feeding frenzy of boredom. Can't even really fault the actors, all of whom (yes, Brad Pitt included) turn in very good performances. It's all on the director's head. Your fault. Bad director. Bad.

D.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah, "21 Grams" was a big headcold of pretension as well. And I actually paid to see that in a theater. Think I'll skip this one entirely...

Dave Kopperman said...

Oh, this was the same guy who did "21 Grams?" I didn't see that, because Sean Penn kind of equals "earnest bullshit" in my movie lexicon.

I don't know. It's possible to make a film drama that isn't also slow and boring, but this guy obviously doesn't agree.

What's amazing about "Babel" is that if you turned it just one click further, it would have been an over-the-top farce on the level of "Anchorman," given how many completely unlikely occurrences were deemed necessary by the script to set the story in motion.

D.