Paramount rolled over Babylon for an early film screening that has opened to mixed reviews, according to Variety.
The film boasted a star-studded cast, including Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, and Brad Pitt. Also, Tobey Maguire, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, and Jovan Adepo.
Directed by Damien Chazelle, who named the inspiration of the comedy-drama from Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, Robert Altman's Nashville,and The Godfather — "old-school epics that managed, through a handful of characters, to convey a society changing."
Further, Variety awards editor Clayton Davis lauds the film, calling it a "high-octane trip with a first half better than its second."
Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay praised the film, tweeting, "Extravagant, decadent and all together delightfully delicious. babylonmovie is phenomenal filmmaking . This is Damien Chazelle’s love letter to movie making, and Margot Robbie’s best performance to date. The score is outstanding."
While some critics are not impressed by the film, which tells the story of excess in the early age of Hollywood.
Senior editor of EW, Joshua Rothkopf, said, "Damien Chazelle brings buckets of energy to BABYLON, but it's never not pounding and obvious and, finally, uninsightful. Everything about it is borrowed — even down to Tobey Maguire stealing the film as its Alfred Molina. A Scorsese coke film by a squeaky clean director."
A correspondent of Yahoo Entertainment, Kevin Polowy, tweeted, "A coked-up Margot Robbie projectile vomiting all over the face of a stuffy old man in a tux pretty much sums up the chaotic energy and glorious messiness of BABYLON, truly the strangest, most debaucherous love letter to Hollywood ever."
Babylon will hit the theaters on Dec. 23.