I've often heard him defend films I'm not too keen on. At the end of the day he has probably seen and reviewed more films than most of us so I tend to value his judgement, but nobody will ever wholeheartedly agree on everything, its the nature of the Human race to have some differences, which is why there is no such thing as 'normal'.
It must be extremely diffucult for directors and filmmakers to find a balance between self-important pretentious artwork and a film that is actually trying to say something honestly and with genuine passion and emotion. I think Babel could fall somewhere in between.
I loved the film so I couldn't disagree more with Mr Kermode. Of course he has his opinions but at least he should have said something about the brilliant music in the film.
There's lots of artistic/technical aspects to the film that are great, but even then it's hard to praise all that when it's in service of something so trite
Other opinions are available. I quite frequently disagree with Kermode, but he's an entertaining critic. I saw this film twice and liked it both times. Ending brought a tear to the eye. Also, imo all films with interweaving storylines are laboured, it's the nature of coincidences to be unbelievable. I don't think the point of the film is to say "In the end we're all just one big mushy pea" on the contrary, I think it's the exact opposite. Life is very varied, but very subtly interconnected.
Gee, I don't know... I really don't feel like the director was trying to say "You know, in the end we're all part of everything, blablabla". I think Kermode is reading waayy too much into the movie, and actually putting words on the director's mouth (Unless I'm wrong and the director actually said this, which I doubt). I never found it to be condescending nor about sending a message to the audience. I found it to be an experience about how things can easily get fucked up in a matter of seconds.
I agree with Mark, but I'm still glad I saw it for the ecstasy/club sequence. The director should maybe consider making music videos instead of movies.
I'm pretty surprised by Mark's rant on this, because I actually liked it. The connection to Morocco and Japan may seem kind of far fetched but I felt for the characters on some level.
The film maybe long & confusing, however the film’s like A drama take on Franklyn (2008) as the film’s well directed, well acted, stylish & interesting. (78%) (4/5 stars) (positive)
Mark thinks Babel is pretentious, artsy twaddle and yet Crash is a film that will stand the test of time. I've seen Crash but not Babel, and it's not a bad film but it does seem to be incredibly obvious and preachy in retrospect, we get it Paul Haggis we are have prejudices towards each other but we should rise above them.
Hmm...Mark obviously doesn't know what happens in Japan. The scene in the movie was quite believable, from what I have seen in my near 20 years in Japan.
@xonkonog Yeah, he doesn't like any films at all.......except The Exorcist, It's a Wonderful Life, Brazil, The Assassination of Jesse James, Pan's Labyrinth, There Will Be Blood, A Matter of Life and Death, No Country for Old Men, The Godfather, Let the Right One In, Blue Velvet, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Citizen Kane-- would you like me to go on?
Im a big kermode fan, i agree with him about 80% of the time. Babel is an exception as I love it and he hates it. But examples: a film I love that he loves: Pans Labyrinth a film that he hates that I hate: Borat... a film that he loves that I hate: No country for old men a film that i love that he hates: BABEL!!!!!!!!! differences of opinion are cool
I agree with Kermode on most reviews, but I think he missed the mark on this one for predictable reasons. He seems eager to show he's not doing it just to be jumping on the backlash bandwagon, but his motivations are the same: he is annoyed by the praise and reverence the film was getting and this influenced his viewing of the film.
Important to note: the "woman" not wearing her underwear in Japan is a teenage girl. If this film had been made post-#metoo people would have realised now pornographic and unpleasant that sequence is. Its there to provide sexual entertainment for the male audience.
Why is Babel self important? Is it not a film about how people are shaped by circumstance and environment? Kermode hates it due to a combination of the context and environment in which he viewed it, also perhaps due to the director moving away from exploitation, one of his favourite genres, love Kermode but he has misjudged this tremendously, a lot like he did with A.I
+christimothy12 Babel is very, very contrived. Its lack of genuineness show up just how unnecessarily self important it is. That's the problem with the film. This review was spot on
I thought that the entire plot with the Asian chick had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It felt completely disconnected and served no purpose. Could’ve just mad that into its own movie
i liked the japanese girl sequence, that was the only interesting part of the film to me. it's probably cause i was a teenage girl when watching it and thought it a good picture of teenage life and felt for the girl. it could have cut the last bit where she gets naked for the policeman, that was just icky, and the bit in the cafe, actually. the problem with the film was that it was boring, one can get away with being self important and pretentious, their work just needs to be good enough
If Mark Kermode feels this way then i just wanna say that another film which recived great criticism that i realy did not like was Knocked Up, i thought it was incredibly boring and unfunny
it's actually pronounced bAbEl not the way kermode said it, i'm arab i know, As for the movie it was horrible to watch but the way it was shoot and the music was really beautiful.
Iñarritu is the man, but I gotta side with Mark on this one. Thankfully, seems it was just a hiccup and his movies have been pretty consistently good to great since.
He's right, Babel is a lame movie. The three stories don't connect well. It has some good parts but the film is to boring. I loved Amores Perros by the way.
I'm going to defend 21 grams, I think it was over chopped up yes but I did like the non linear aspect and really believed in Naomi Watts. A bit grittily filmed but still engaging and worth watching.
I read a synopsis of the film when the film came out. Thought it sounded like a load of pretentious twaddle (or... Babble ? har-har-har) even back then. Never saw it, and based on Mark's review, the film is really melodramatic and cheesy, so I'm glad not having bothered with it. What is it with talented Mexican directors losing sight of the forest for the trees ? Cuarón, more recently Iñárritu... Neither is a bad director, but they need to pick their material better or hire better screenwriters.
I'm with mike, thought it was total tripe. Awkward scenes that are far too contrived, lack of focus means the film is very vague and no clear drive, very dull and boring, and quite frankly stereotypical and racist.
"in the end we're all just one big... mushy pea, no we're not, no we're not" Brilliant Kermode!
"Is it me or is this poo?" had me howling.
I learn so many new insults from Kermode
I love how Kermode refers to the deaf Japanese girl (who was a main character and only naked in one scene) as "The woman with no pants in Japan"
haha "art with a capital F" im gonna use that all the time
I loved this movie, sorry Mark.
How could Mark be so right about Babel, and yet so wrong about Crash?..
That was my thinking, both films are as ponderous as each other yet he loved Crash haha.
he loved Crash tho which was INCREDIBLY self-important and manipulative
Lmaooooooooo this is the best review of Babel you can find online
The best review of Babel.
I like Babel but I love this rant. Amores perros is still the best film by this director.
Amores perros is Just beautiful
Now, it’s Birdman.
@@romanumeralz Maybe. I'd have to rewatch both of them.
"the woman with no pants in Japan" lmao
I get his point, but I enjoyed it.
Completely agree with this review. Babel is one of the most pretentious films I've ever seen.
Kermode's rants are epic
had to watch this film this week in my Film and TV class at Uni I agree with Mark completely what a load of laborious twaddle !!!
How can mark love crash and hate this.
"'In the end we're all just one, big, mushy pea.' No we're not. No we're not!" Textbook Kermode.
“Non, non! C’est masterpiece! C’est magnifique! How dare you, English pig dog”
I felt exactly the same way about Crash
I agree, it was pretentious, self-important, rambling and ponderous. No wonder the French audience loved it.
"this is art with a capital F" LOL
Haha mark having a spare signed exorcist poster is peak kermode
I've often heard him defend films I'm not too keen on. At the end of the day he has probably seen and reviewed more films than most of us so I tend to value his judgement, but nobody will ever wholeheartedly agree on everything, its the nature of the Human race to have some differences, which is why there is no such thing as 'normal'.
The parenthood is beneath all these storylines...inarrutu dedicated it to his children...i like this movie so fuckin much..despite kermode's feeling.
What Kermode said about Iñárritu applies to Fernando Meirelles (who directed City of God) as well.
It must be extremely diffucult for directors and filmmakers to find a balance between self-important pretentious artwork and a film that is actually trying to say something honestly and with genuine passion and emotion. I think Babel could fall somewhere in between.
I liked Rinko as the deaf girl, the interconnectivity of the characters. and thats it.
I loved the film so I couldn't disagree more with Mr Kermode. Of course he has his opinions but at least he should have said something about the brilliant music in the film.
There's lots of artistic/technical aspects to the film that are great, but even then it's hard to praise all that when it's in service of something so trite
Other opinions are available. I quite frequently disagree with Kermode, but he's an entertaining critic. I saw this film twice and liked it both times. Ending brought a tear to the eye. Also, imo all films with interweaving storylines are laboured, it's the nature of coincidences to be unbelievable. I don't think the point of the film is to say "In the end we're all just one big mushy pea" on the contrary, I think it's the exact opposite. Life is very varied, but very subtly interconnected.
Gee, I don't know... I really don't feel like the director was trying to say "You know, in the end we're all part of everything, blablabla". I think Kermode is reading waayy too much into the movie, and actually putting words on the director's mouth (Unless I'm wrong and the director actually said this, which I doubt). I never found it to be condescending nor about sending a message to the audience. I found it to be an experience about how things can easily get fucked up in a matter of seconds.
Would make a good double feature with Film Socialisme.
Aw, come on. I enjoyed this film very much. Yes, he makes a few points, but I thought the film was very dramatic and wonderfully acted.
I agree with Mark, but I'm still glad I saw it for the ecstasy/club sequence. The director should maybe consider making music videos instead of movies.
mark is a riot! lol
Babel is garbage, but Mark's filtering everything through a leftist lens.
I'm pretty surprised by Mark's rant on this, because I actually liked it. The connection to Morocco and Japan may seem kind of far fetched but I felt for the characters on some level.
I agree with Mark Kermode on this movie.
This is art with a capital F
He's become the filmaking equivalent of Michael Jackson
Daaaaaamn lol
The film maybe long & confusing, however the film’s like A drama take on Franklyn (2008) as the film’s well directed, well acted, stylish & interesting. (78%) (4/5 stars) (positive)
Mark thinks Babel is pretentious, artsy twaddle and yet Crash is a film that will stand the test of time. I've seen Crash but not Babel, and it's not a bad film but it does seem to be incredibly obvious and preachy in retrospect, we get it Paul Haggis we are have prejudices towards each other but we should rise above them.
I wouldn't call it a bad film, but I don't think it's a masterpiece either. I can see why people think the Japanese bit is salacious though.
Hmm...Mark obviously doesn't know what happens in Japan. The scene in the movie was quite believable, from what I have seen in my near 20 years in Japan.
loved the Japan segments, carried by Rinko Kikuchi.
the other segments I was like eh....
@shrunkard Did you see the Nike commercial he directed for the World Cup? It was fantastic.
We havent got any Movie-reviewer in Turkey.Kermode taught me...
The Transporter....
@xonkonog Yeah, he doesn't like any films at all.......except The Exorcist, It's a Wonderful Life, Brazil, The Assassination of Jesse James, Pan's Labyrinth, There Will Be Blood, A Matter of Life and Death, No Country for Old Men, The Godfather, Let the Right One In, Blue Velvet, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Citizen Kane-- would you like me to go on?
Im a big kermode fan, i agree with him about 80% of the time. Babel is an exception as I love it and he hates it. But examples:
a film I love that he loves: Pans Labyrinth
a film that he hates that I hate: Borat...
a film that he loves that I hate: No country for old men
a film that i love that he hates: BABEL!!!!!!!!!
differences of opinion are cool
I agree with Kermode on most reviews, but I think he missed the mark on this one for predictable reasons. He seems eager to show he's not doing it just to be jumping on the backlash bandwagon, but his motivations are the same: he is annoyed by the praise and reverence the film was getting and this influenced his viewing of the film.
thank god someone else realized this was shit
Important to note: the "woman" not wearing her underwear in Japan is a teenage girl. If this film had been made post-#metoo people would have realised now pornographic and unpleasant that sequence is. Its there to provide sexual entertainment for the male audience.
@TulseLuper
Basically he doesn't like anything... except good movies.
i liked this film though i agree the connections between the storylines was tenous
easy fella
I liked it but can agree with mark kermode on why it sucked for him I remember seeing it in cinemas as a teenager
Why is Babel self important? Is it not a film about how people are shaped by circumstance and environment? Kermode hates it due to a combination of the context and environment in which he viewed it, also perhaps due to the director moving away from exploitation, one of his favourite genres, love Kermode but he has misjudged this tremendously, a lot like he did with A.I
+christimothy12 Babel is very, very contrived. Its lack of genuineness show up just how unnecessarily self important it is. That's the problem with the film. This review was spot on
@jamchew1982 Nah, wasn't it the other 'Crash' - Cronenberg's?
It can be very difficult to differenciate between absolute crap and a work of art I find.
fuck yes!
I thought that the entire plot with the Asian chick had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It felt completely disconnected and served no purpose. Could’ve just mad that into its own movie
Gosh - it was a horrible, self-important stinker of a movie. 2 hours of my life I will never get back;0(
I liked the part where the deaf Chinese girl flashes her minge at the lecherous teenage boys. Not pruriently, I mean it was just funny.
Birdman and The Revenant were exactly the same. Godawful movies.
I hated it first. I will only forgive Mark Kermode and Mark Kermode alone for that line.
The fact that Mark bashed this, but defended Crash is downright sickening.
The woman with no pants in Japan
i liked the japanese girl sequence, that was the only interesting part of the film to me. it's probably cause i was a teenage girl when watching it and thought it a good picture of teenage life and felt for the girl. it could have cut the last bit where she gets naked for the policeman, that was just icky, and the bit in the cafe, actually. the problem with the film was that it was boring, one can get away with being self important and pretentious, their work just needs to be good enough
@jamchew1982 True...well, nobody's perfect.
2:17 hahahaha
@luvpump1 Of course he's self-opinionated. He's a critic!
Roger Ebert disagreed with you! So does YMS! And so do I! This is a great film.
So???
If Mark Kermode feels this way then i just wanna say that another film which recived great criticism that i realy did not like was Knocked Up, i thought it was incredibly boring and unfunny
it's actually pronounced bAbEl not the way kermode said it, i'm arab i know, As for the movie it was horrible to watch but the way it was shoot and the music was really beautiful.
I liked the movie, but a Kermodian rant is a Kermodian rant XD
I hated it pretty much on the 30 min mark, so I came second.
wow....lmao
Weak comparison. Malick's work is a lot more ethereal and doesn't try and inflict pain on the characters and audience at every turn!
Iñarritu is the man, but I gotta side with Mark on this one. Thankfully, seems it was just a hiccup and his movies have been pretty consistently good to great since.
@xonkonog Because most things made these days are shit
I usually agree with Kermode, but not on this one.
I can't believe he doesn't hate Terrence Malick then. Babel was trying to do what Malick does.
He's right, Babel is a lame movie. The three stories don't connect well. It has some good parts but the film is to boring. I loved Amores Perros by the way.
Babel was unwatchable. 21 Grams was just as bad.
21 Grams just frustrated me. Not because it confused me, just that it's messy non linear narrative didn't click.
I'm going to defend 21 grams, I think it was over chopped up yes but I did like the non linear aspect and really believed in Naomi Watts. A bit grittily filmed but still engaging and worth watching.
I saw brad pitt on the poster so i hated it even before i saw it beat that mark
First time Kermode's British patrotism got the better of him.
amores peros an exploitation style film? really?
Kermode is just wayyyy too self opinionated, some of the films he likes i thought were shite .
I read a synopsis of the film when the film came out. Thought it sounded like a load of pretentious twaddle (or... Babble ? har-har-har) even back then. Never saw it, and based on Mark's review, the film is really melodramatic and cheesy, so I'm glad not having bothered with it. What is it with talented Mexican directors losing sight of the forest for the trees ? Cuarón, more recently Iñárritu... Neither is a bad director, but they need to pick their material better or hire better screenwriters.
I'm with mike, thought it was total tripe. Awkward scenes that are far too contrived, lack of focus means the film is very vague and no clear drive, very dull and boring, and quite frankly stereotypical and racist.
Unbelievably misguided film.
Crap film, great soundtrack.
Absolutely dreadful film.
So pretentious and so boring