In honor of "Babel"'s high-mark total of seven nods this morning, I've put in the screener to give another look. This really is one of the most well-realized films of the year, full of stellar performances, wonderful ideas and praise-worthy social commentary. Those with brows too high for their own good might strain to see pretension within its frames, but they'd be woefully misguided, in my opinion. Just because a film dares to be ambitious and goes places no other film will, or seemingly can, go, that doesn't mean it is guilty of being "pretentious," the most overused term in the community of artistic criticism.
A big congrats to Paramount Vantage and the team at Perception PR for running a smooth awards campaign so far and being quite obviously excited for their film.
Rinko. Night club. Earth, Wind and Fire's "September." One of the best scenes of the year.
Babel 2nd favorite film of the year, just after CHILDREN OF MEN... Rinko Kikuchi & Adriana Barraza are so great, the film is very ambitious, so many people call it "mediocre" and a mess, but it is such a well directed film with the best ensemble of the year. A great cinematography & score. And THE best editing of the year.
The amount of details, is MESMERIZING...
Some people don't like it because of some graphic scences, I applaud Inarritu for making every single shot of the film in such a beatiful & humane way...
Posted by: CarlinhosBrown![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 14, 2006 09:48 AM
I'm right there with Carlinhos! Those two and Little Miss Sunshine are my favourites of 2006 so far! (only a few left to see)
Posted by: crazycris![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 14, 2006 10:22 AM
crazycris.... we are like the same person!!!!
my favorite 3 films are Children of Men, Babel & Little Miss Sunshine as well....!!!I just want you to know you have great taste in films...
Posted by: CarlinhosBrown![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 14, 2006 11:43 AM
I saw Babel today actually. I'm very confused over it. On one hand I thought it was incredible flawed, but then on the other when it was over I found myself thinking of the movie positively.
Rinko and Adrianna are good but Brad, Cate and Gael doesn't really have anything to do. And I'm not even sure Innaritu knows what the point of the whole Tokyo segment was (despite it being my favourite of the four, mainly because of Rinko and the collage of images and sounds).
The club scene was indeed a stunner.
Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 15, 2006 06:56 AM
Personally I think Babel is a pretentious film only the high browed critics raved about. It has completely no chance at success at the Oscars.
Posted by: numberina![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 15, 2006 11:31 PM
That statement is bizarre and totally unfounded, numberina.
I have mixed feelings on "Babel" myself; felt it was awfully uneven in effectiveness and that the performances were a mixed bag. Though it was nevertheless engaging and interesting and certainly not "pretentious" (a term I HATE being used to describe art).
And that scene in the Japanese nightclub? Possibly the year's best.
Posted by: Gerard Kennedy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 16, 2006 11:33 AM
If it wasn't for big name stars like Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, I highly doubt that this film will be taken seriously. They could have got lesser-known actors instead of Pitt and Blanchett, who I think is overrated in this film.
Posted by: numberina![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 16, 2006 03:26 PM
If nothing else (and I didn't care for Babel either; it's not pretentious, but it is overwrought and incredibly contrived, the Crash of 2006), it wasn't the high-brow critics that liked it. In fact, the high-brow critics seemed to for the most part dislike it. It was the middle-brow critics who loved it.
Posted by: Matt Noller![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 16, 2006 03:51 PM
That's exactly what I said in the item.
Posted by: Kristopher Tapley![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 16, 2006 06:07 PM
Reminder: Luckily for BABEL, there are no critics in the AMPAS membership.
Posted by: Mongoose![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 16, 2006 10:44 PM
I hope you don't think I was trying to correct you, Kris. I was responding to numberina's comment about highbrow critics.
Posted by: Matt Noller![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 17, 2006 04:04 PM
Gotcha Matt. Was confused for a second there...
Posted by: Kristopher Tapley![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.incontention.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
| December 17, 2006 06:03 PM