The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureCinemaMovie reviews

Babeldom

Babeldom | Movie review
13 March 2013
Tom Yates
Avatar
Tom Yates
13 March 2013

Writer/director Paul Bush presents Babeldom, his first feature-length film, which reflects on modern life, the contemporaneity of the past and the present, and our shifting understanding of all three, through a fictional half-realised vision of a futuristic mega-city.

Its primary source of narrative comes in the shape of voiceovers (paired with a diverse spectrum of visuals) from a total cast of four: man, woman, future man, and future woman.

There are live establishing shots of various cities, with both historical and modern architecture, that are either meant to terrify you – abandoned corridors and windows presented in a way that wouldn’t be out of place in a David Lynch film – or dazzle you, with purposefully framed lingering shots of endless tunnels and caves, looming skyscrapers, and corkscrew stairwells. Bush lets the camera gaze accentuate the sublimity of the various edifices. It’s disorientating, and proves subtly arresting.

Then there are peculiar animated visuals, such as a ship sailing through space before exploding into pixilated shards, or humans aimlessly walking through half-constructed buildings, like a hellish version of Sim City.

Finally, there is some truly bizarre footage, sourced from places such as the Department of Aeronautics, the London School of Nanotechnology, and the Centre for Mathematic and Computer Science. There’s a complexity and exoticism to these images that words alone could never accurately or coherently capture. Quite simply, you’ll have to see them for yourself.

But with this array of images Bush is able to create a perplexing and kaleidoscopic experience to match the ambitious nature of the film’s esoteric narration and message. Various academic fields are intertwined, from philosophical stances about how humans live (“rising to an identical day to the one they’ve just abandoned”) to mathematics and science (it uses the law of thermodynamics to explain nostalgia: “wisdom is entropy”).

It will be dismissed by some, and relished by others. But for sure, you won’t see anything else like it.

★★★★★

Tom Yates

Babeldom was released on 8th March 2013 and is in selected cinemas now.

Watch the trailer for Babeldom here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Imperial Blue

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

MLK/FBI

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Sing Me a Song

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Wonder Woman 1984

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More

Come Away

★★★★★
Sylvia Unerman
Read More

Murder Me, Monster

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

David Byrne’s American Utopia

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Dreamland

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • The White Tiger
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Start the year right with these eco-friendly vegan and vegetarian food deliveries
    Food & Drinks
  • Hello Cosmos – Dream Harder
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • 23 Walks
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Live Lab at The Yard Theatre: An interview with associate director Cheryl Gallagher
    Theatre
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Identifying Features
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

The Book of Mormon at Prince of Wales Theatre | Theatre review
MS MR live at XOYO | Live review