Babeling

I don't intend to see Babel, but Toby has. Here's the Bilious Young Fogey's take:

What to make of Babel? Cinematographically, it is virtuoso film making, with every shot rich and over-developed and (curiously) foreshortened like some of the slightly stranger Renaissance frescoes. This film would have cost a lot of money to make, and, sign of the times, with a nonverbal soundtrack and/or cut up into more digestible chunks or loops, would easily pass in an art gallery as cutting edge video art.

Did it work as a film? Emphatically not. Turgid, loud, fussy, indulgent, and manipulative are some words that spring to mind. Derivative of the whole Rashomon/Pulp Fiction splitting of narrative (this time prospectively) are others.
....
A great piece of art, but a crap film.

Read it here.