The Big Picture: The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along

Published 2024-03-26; 3:13:08 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “The Babylon Watch-Along”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins. Guests: Chris Ryan.

Subject films: Babylon (2022).

On the transcript: No speaker labels; a three-way conversation among Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins and Chris Ryan ('CR'), plus a producer, Bobby, who occasionally answers by talkback (e.g., 'Bob, how far into the movie are we right now?'), so most speaker attributions are low-confidence. Large parts of the transcript are off-topic banter (Zyn, golf reservations, menswear) and the film's own audio bleeds into the talk, while the ad read at the very top (a Press Box promo) and any host-read ads were skipped as instructed.

Films that came up

Claims (64)

unmapped (next-film wish): Damien Chazelle → Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. A speaker pitches Chazelle making a Die Hard or Indiana Jones style throwback action movie.
“I think Damien Chazelle was like, what we need is like a diehard or, you know, Indiana Jones like throwback stuntty action movie.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:05:00 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (guessed favorite): Bradley Cooper → All About Eve. Asked which Bette Davis movie Cooper loves, a speaker guesses All About Eve.
“All about Eve?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:06:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career moment): Jean Smart → Hacks. Smart's Hacks success was running at the same time as Babylon, yet nobody cared about Babylon.
“Interesting timing of Gene Smart blowing up again with hacks simultaneous to this and it's still not mattering because she's such an important character in this movie.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:08:39 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (same-fall flop): Babylon → Amsterdam. Babylon and Amsterdam, both Margot Robbie films, are paired as the catastrophic fall that dented her standing.
“it was this plus Amsterdam in the same fall”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:10:31 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (release-order what-if): Babylon → Barbie. A speaker argues Babylon would have done bigger business had Barbie come out before it.
“If Barbie had come out before Babylon, how big is Babylon?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:10:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (marketing contrast): Babylon → La La Land. The hosts imagine Babylon being sold as from the director of La La Land, while Barbie's release sat nearby.
“This is from the man who brought you Laland and the woman who brought you Barbie.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:11:07 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (upcoming project): Brad Pitt → Joseph Kosinski. Pitt's fast-cars movie is Kosinski's F1 film, said to have script troubles.
“The Kaczinski F1 movie?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:13:26 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (character model): Brad Pitt → John Gilbert. Pitt's Babylon character is said to mirror silent-era star John Gilbert.
“John Gilbert is a big influence.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:14:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (character model): Brad Pitt → Douglas Fairbanks. Douglas Fairbanks is named as another model for Pitt's character.
“Douglas Fairbanks, for sure.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:14:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (character model): Brad Pitt → Rudolph Valentino. Valentino is named as the other big influence on the writing of Pitt's character.
“Yeah, so I think Rudolph Valentino is the other one that is was a big influence on the writing of this character.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:14:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (persona use): Brad Pitt → Babylon. Babylon is called a smart use of Brad Pitt's skills, with the movie-star persona built in.
“This is a very smart utilization of Brad Pitt's skills.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:15:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (persona): Brad Pitt → Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Pitt's Oscar for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is said to cement his iconography and may make it harder for him to transform.
“Like, I think him winning an Academy Award for once upon a time in Hollywood, oddly, may work against him because it is such a strong utilization of his iconography.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:15:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (cameo exception): Brad Pitt → True Romance. The one character-actor exception to Pitt's perfect-Brad-Pitt roles is his Floyd cameo in True Romance.
“Like, with the exception of like cameos like Floyd and true Romance and stuff like that.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:16:00 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (taste): Brad Pitt → Moneyball. A speaker prefers Pitt in perfect-Brad-Pitt roles such as Ocean's 11, Moneyball and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
“Like, the ones I like are his performances in Ocean's 11 and Moneyball and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:16:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (fusion of filmography): Babylon → Whiplash. The same party sequence is described as La La Land and Whiplash blending together.
“this sequence with, uh, Lee Jung Lee as a kind of stand in for anime Wong is when I felt like this was a real fusion of the things that Chazelle had done to this point.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:18:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (fusion of filmography): Babylon → La La Land. The Lee Jung Lee party sequence is said to blend La La Land and Whiplash.
“that this is kind of La La Land and whiplash blending together.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:19:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (format echo): Damien Chazelle → The Eddy. Babylon's ensemble table-setting reminded the speaker of Chazelle's long-form TV work on The Eddy, which was forgotten on arrival.
“Kind of reminded me a little bit of Chazelle's dalliance with long form television and doing the Eddie for Netflix, which was essentially forgotten upon arrival.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:20:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (length debate): Babylon → Killers of the Flower Moon. The too-long objection to Babylon is the same issue as the Killers of the Flower Moon debate.
“You know, this is a very similar issue to me as the, um, Killers of the Flower Moon debate, which is that for some people, this is just too long.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:21:21 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (length contrast): Babylon → Immaculate. Immaculate is held up as a movie that is perfect at 89 minutes, against Babylon at 3.5 hours.
“Like, did you need another 40 minutes of immaculate?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:22:09 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (length contrast): Babylon → Transformers: Age of Extinction. A speaker says long auteur films do not bother them but long bad blockbusters like Transformers: Age of Extinction do.
“I was reminded recently that Transformers colon Age of Extinction, which is either the 4th or 5th Transformers movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:22:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (character model): Margot Robbie → Clara Bow. Robbie's Babylon character is described as strongly modeled on silent star Clara Bow.
“Margot's character is obviously very influenced by Clara Bow.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:22:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career thread): Margot Robbie → The Wolf of Wall Street. Wolf of Wall Street is cited as Robbie's introduction as a sex symbol.
“That is her introduction.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:22:59 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career thread): Margot Robbie → Barbie. Robbie's beauty is called a feature in Amsterdam, Babylon and Barbie alike.
“beauty is still like at the center of most of the parts that she takes on in Amsterdam in this movie and Barbie, like her beauty is a is a feature, not a bug.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:23:08 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (collaborator): Justin Hurwitz → Damien Chazelle. Hurwitz's Babylon score is counted as his 4th or 5th film with Chazelle.
“I think this is his 5th movie, 4th movie with Chazelle.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:24:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (influence-wearing): Damien Chazelle → Boogie Nights. A speaker likens Chazelle's visible influences to Paul Thomas Anderson openly ripping off Scorsese in Boogie Nights.
“when I watched the commentary track for boogie nights, and Paul Thomas Anderson explained how he just ripped off images he saw in Mean Streets or in Goodfellas or in all the Scorsese movies.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:24:42 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): Boogie Nights → Mean Streets. Per the commentary track, Anderson lifted images from Mean Streets, Goodfellas and other Scorsese films for Boogie Nights.
“Paul Thomas Anderson explained how he just ripped off images he saw in Mean Streets or in Goodfellas”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:24:42 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (see-in-theaters pairing): Dune: Part Two → Driveaway Dolls. A speaker argues Driveaway Dolls, like Dune 2, is a movie worth seeing in a theater with a crowd.
“often we're like, you must see Dune 2 in theaters, which is true, but I would also probably argue that you should probably see driveway dolls in theaters”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:34:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (spouse and collaborator): Olivia Hamilton → Damien Chazelle. Olivia Hamilton, who plays Ruth Adler and is a Babylon producer, is Chazelle's wife.
“That's Olivia Hamilton, Damian Chazelle's wife and one of the producers of this movie, also very, very funny as the, as Ruth Adler, one of the stand in filmmakers.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:37:27 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (signature work): Erich von Stroheim → Greed. A speaker sets out von Stroheim as actor in Grand Illusion and Sunset Boulevard, and director of the silent Greed.
“And he's also in Sunset Boulevard, and he directed Greed.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:39:11 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (plays real person): Max Minghella → Irving Thalberg. Minghella plays Irving Thalberg, the rare real person in the film.
“He's playing Irving Thalberg here.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:43:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career highlights): Spike Jonze → Moneyball. A speaker says Moneyball, Wolf of Wall Street and Babylon would be enough for Jonze's acting Hall of Fame.
“I mean, you could just do Moneyball Wolf of Wall Street and Babylon in the Hall of Fame.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:46:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (source material): Spike Jonze → Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze made films from children's books by Sendak (name garbled as Herb Sendek).
“He wrote a number of wonderful children's books that Spike Jones based films on.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:46:54 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (visual comparison): Harold and the Purple Crayon → Sonic the Hedgehog (films). Early renderings of the new Harold and the Purple Crayon are compared to the Sonic movie's first-design furor.
“It was sort of like a Sonic version one and version two.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:47:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (scene mirror): Babylon → Singin' in the Rain. Babylon's walk-on bar scene mirrors the flashback that opens Singin' in the Rain, where Don Lockwood gets a walk-on.
“Um, Don Lockwood gets a walk on part in a bar in that like in that flashback to start the movie.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:48:21 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (character model): Clara Bow → Singin' in the Rain. A speaker says part of the Lena Lamont / Clara Bow type of brassy outsider star is historically real, and Nellie fits it.
“Well, I think like a little bit of the Lena Lamont Clara Beau stuff is real.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:56:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (score reuse): Babylon → La La Land. The Babylon score is said to reappropriate music from La La Land's dream ballet.
“This is like very much from the dream ballet of La Land, this music and the score.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:57:59 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (visual vibes): Babylon → Dario Argento. The all-red-dye silent screening sequence recalls Argento and Brian De Palma.
“And also the all red dye, major Argento, Brian de Palma vibes here, with the way that this sequence looks.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:59:14 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (shared device): Babylon → Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Both films show Margot Robbie watching herself on screen in a movie theater.
“Yeah, also shout out to Margot Robbie watching herself on screen in movie theaters.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:59:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (mirror image): Samara Weaving → Babylon. Samara Weaving and Margot Robbie are likened to Vertigo-style mirrors of each other.
“Uh, the kind of Samara weaving Margot Robbie, like being, being like vertigo mirrors to one another.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:00:58 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (homage): Babylon → Singin' in the Rain. A speaker calls the sound-stage scene a direct Singin' in the Rain homage, 'on steroids times a 1000'.
“Again, like a very, very direct homage.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:13:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (echo): Babylon → Singin' in the Rain. The silent-to-sound struggle scene in Babylon echoes Singin' in the Rain, down to the actress who cannot find the microphone.
“And that is a huge echo of singing in the rain.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:14:54 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (set intensity): Babylon → Briar Patch. A speaker says the sound-stage tension in Babylon is like the making of Briar Patch.
“Now this is more like Briar Patch.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:15:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (next-film wish): Damien Chazelle → Babylon. Watching the sound-stage scene, a speaker says Chazelle should make a horror movie.
“This scene makes me think he should make a horror movie.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:16:00 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (set practice contrast): Babylon → Oppenheimer. Babylon's first-AD hitting-the-marks scene is contrasted with Nolan's Oppenheimer shoot, which had no marks.
“Christopher Nolan, like on Oppenheimer, they didn't really have any marks that they had to hit.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:23:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Hoita → Oppenheimer. A speaker relays that on Oppenheimer, per Downey, the actors had no marks and the camera side and Nolan followed their movements.
“Downey makes it sound like they could just like walk into a room and do all sorts of things and it was like Hoita and Nolan were like, we'll follow you.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:23:13 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
career (filmography): Katherine Waterston → Alien: Covenant. Waterston is praised in Alien: Covenant and Inherent Vice, then Perry Mason and Fantastic Beasts.
“So good in alien covenant.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:25:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (scene mirror): Babylon → Singin' in the Rain. A Babylon moment is said to echo Don and Kathy Selden from Singin' in the Rain.
“Also, echoes of Don and Kathy Selden.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:44:09 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (physique): Gene Kelly → Brad Pitt. A speaker says Gene Kelly and Pitt share an ideal male form, in a riff on Babylon's wardrobe.
“I mean, he and Brad Pitt share a ideal male format.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:45:33 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (tangent recommendation): Babylon → Snack Shack. A pool-snacks tangent leads to a recommendation of Snack Shack, produced by Rian Johnson's T Street.
“Um, Basically being released independently is produced by Ryan Johnson's company, T Street, and it's a, here we see Margot Robbie losing her nerve and breaking down.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:53:26 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (scene mirror): Babylon → The Dancing Cavalier (film-within-Singin' in the Rain; heard also as 'link cavalier'). The audience in Babylon's screening laughs at the same dialogue ('I love you') as in Singin' in the Rain's screening of The Dancing Cavalier.
“They're literally laughing at the exact same dialogue in the screening that they do of the link cavalier.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:56:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (self-commentary): Babylon → Damien Chazelle. A speaker reads the film as possibly Chazelle commenting on himself as a holdout against blockbusterization, after its box-office failure.
“Damien Chisel gets propped up as one of the, like, the, the, last filmmakers to, who was trying to make movies like this in the face of, DIP blockbusterization of cinema.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:58:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (not his lane): Damien Chazelle → Green Lantern (hypothetical project). A speaker says Chazelle should not sign up for a superhero movie.
“I don't think that he should be like signing up for the Green Lantern movie for James Guy.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:59:20 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (recurring theme): Damien Chazelle → First Man. Chazelle's recurring theme of people who touch greatness and then lose it runs through La La Land and First Man as well as Babylon.
“That's what La La Land is about. If you look at the end of that movie, that's what 1st man is about.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:59:49 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (recurring theme): Damien Chazelle → Whiplash. Whiplash is added to the list of Chazelle films where people touch greatness and it falls away.
“they touch greatness and then they falls away, whiplash, same thing.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:59:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (awards-season comparison): Babylon → May December. A speaker wonders if Babylon suffered in Los Angeles for the same reason May December did in awards season.
“I wonder if this movie suffered at least here in Los Angeles, in part for the same reason that May, December, seemed to suffer during award season.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:07:31 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (awards-season comparison): Babylon → Maestro. Babylon's flop with Los Angeles voters is compared to May December's, and the self-loathing about Hollywood to Maestro and Mank.
“It's like, it's scenes, a collection of amazing scenes.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:08:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (casting praise): Tobey Maguire → Babylon. Maguire is said to be so perfectly cast that he makes the surreal, absurd Los Angeles sequence work.
“I think Toby McGuire is so perfectly cast and so good in this that, it, it makes this surreal and the absurdity of this work for me.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:25:03 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (tangent recommendation): Babylon → Road House. After a crocodile-fear tangent triggered by Babylon's crocodile scene, a speaker pushes Roadhouse for its crocodile scene.
“I mean, they're just... pretty exciting crocodile scene.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:30:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (casting what-if): Emma Stone → Babylon. Emma Stone was originally cast in the role Margot Robbie plays.
“Yeah, it's a, it's a, so Emma Stone was supposed to play, uh, The Margot Robbie role.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:39:54 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (performer comparison): Margot Robbie → Emma Stone. Robbie and Stone are called similar in being willing to look ridiculous and vulnerable, unlike earlier female stars.
“I think they're both willing to kind of make themselves ridiculous in a way that a lot of female stars of the past would not.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:40:50 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (homage): Babylon → Singin' in the Rain. The speaker says Babylon is deliberately built around Singin' in the Rain, with specific scenes mirrored on purpose.
“But it is so intentionally built around singing in the rain that I do think the mirroring of the specific scenes are intentional.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:51:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (film history): Babylon → Avatar. The closing montage names Avatar, The Matrix and Terminator 2 as stages in the evolution of how movies are made.
“Like all of those movies that we saw all in their own way represent stages in the evolution of the way that movies are made.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:57:02 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (shared cinematographer): Linus Sandgren → Saltburn. Babylon's cinematographer also shot Saltburn, No Time to Die and True Detective: Night Country.
“You know whose name we didn't mention is Lena Sangren, the cinematographer of this film who also shot Saltburn?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:59:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (series lineage): Zack Snyder's Justice League → Babylon. The Snyder Cut watch-along, born of a lost bet, started the show's watch-along concept that led to this one.
“The Snyder, the Snyder Cut thing was a bet that we lost, that Sean was like, if that, that's how the watch along concept started.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 3:06:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Fun items (26)

fun, about Babylon: The cold open joke: the show's tagline is replaced with a gag about who wants to see someone's dad fight a snake, referencing the film's rattlesnake scene.
“And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about who wants to see my dad fight a fucking snake?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:00:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Framing of the whole movie as a 'we're so back, it's so over' manifestation: everything good and bad about Hollywood and the 21st-century promise of movies.
“this movie is the perfect manifestation of, we're so back, it's so over.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:02:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: The elephant scene at the opening is read as a tidy metaphor for what you must endure to break into Hollywood.
“Nice little tidy metaphor for the experience of trying to break into Hollywood.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:04:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Amanda's famous take: she likes the middle two hours best, and found the opening party a lot after the elephant.
“I famously really like the middle 2 hours of this movie.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:07:04 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: A wish that more movies had overture sections, stretching 20 minutes of virtuosity at the screen.
“I think more movies should have like overture sections like this.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:08:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Damien Chazelle: The Trump-imitation bit: Chris plays Trump criticizing Chazelle for making a drug scene without ever having done drugs.
“Stick to dancing, little Damien.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:17:37 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: A hot take that if the movie had opened with Nellie waking in vomit, then the set, then the Spike Jonze scene, it might win Best Picture.
“And can you imagine if this movie started with this sequence?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:36:29 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Erich von Stroheim: A comedy of errors over von Stroheim's filmography: someone offers Shanghai Express and is corrected, then the group lands on Grand Illusion, Sunset Boulevard and Greed.
“He didn't direct that.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:38:41 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Spike Jonze: Reading Jonze's whole filmography aloud, from Mi Vida Loca to Jackass 4.5 and Babylon, as the greatest actor since 1994.
“of the greatest actor we've ever seen since 1994?”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:45:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: The cross-cut of Manny's frantic camera chase against Nellie's walk-on is praised as some of the best filmmaking and puzzling that anyone hated it.
“I genuinely thought this part was really funny and fun.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:51:37 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Bold rave for the sound-transition scene as the best movie scene of 2022, which drew applause in theaters.
“This is the best movie scene of 2022.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:13:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Why people soured on it: they wanted the nine set pieces to congeal, but it is episodic and about archetypes.
“I think that's one of the things that kept people distant from it too, is because they wanted it to congeal.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:14:22 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Trivia during the shoot-in-the-heat scene: the group looks up when air conditioning was invented, landing on Willis H. Carrier in 1901.
“Willis H. Carrier built what is considered the 1st modern electrical air conditioning unit.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:17:26 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Jeff Garland: Casting remark: Garland looks suspiciously like Harvey Weinstein in Babylon.
“He looks suspiciously like Harvey Weinstein.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:20:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Margot Robbie: See the snake scene: the unspoken star is the wardrobe tape holding Robbie's overalls in place.
“I think the unspoken star of this scene is the, um, wardrobe tape that Mario Robbie clearly has in place on those on the sides of those overalls.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:33:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Singin' in the Rain: Makeup trivia: 1920s-30s screen stars look otherworldly because of heavy pancake, blush and lipstick, as with Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.
“I think that's important because when you look at images of screen stars from that time, and they look otherworldly because they're wearing so much pancake and so much blush and so much, so much lipstick.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:39:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Snack Shack: Sean's recommendation: a raunchy 1991 pool-snack-bar comedy, where teens sell hot dogs with an expletive written in ketchup.
“And they sell something called fuck dogs, for example, where they write the word fuck in ketchup on hot dogs.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:53:55 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Production geography joke: the 'asshole of Los Angeles' sequence is said to have been filmed at Chris's house.
“This uh, the asshole of Los Angeles sequence here that is about to begin was filmed actually at CR's house.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:23:52 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: See the crocodile snap in the shootout: a speaker found it breathtaking in theaters.
“I also found this Breathtaking in movie theaters.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:29:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Location trivia: the Chateau (as in the party hotel) opened in 1926, was owned by attorney Fred Horowitz, and later bought by Vitagraph co-founder Albert E. Smith.
“Well, the chateau opened in 1926.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:31:09 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Oscar trivia: the film got three nominations, for costume design, original score and production design, and none for acting.
“For best costume design, best original score and best production design.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:35:50 · Bobby Wagner (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Ending take: a speaker says the Sidney Palmer coda as final scene would have been too sentimental, and flipping off Hollywood needs the montage too.
“That would have been too sentimental.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:46:57 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Thesis on the montage ending: when you make things you become cynical about making them, then come back around to appreciating them.
“When you make things, you become cynical about the making of them and then you come all the way back around again to appreciating them.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:52:58 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Critic's view of the closing montage: you can feel Chazelle searching for the ending in real time and deciding to throw in The Matrix and Avatar.
“And then he's like, well, I guess I'm just gonna like put the Matrix and Avatar in here and really go big.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:56:26 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: Box office: it made $63.4 million domestically on a reported budget of about $80 million.
“63.4 million. Oh, God.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:59:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Babylon: The producer's wrap-up metaphor: watching Babylon is like eating a whole box of Mike and Ikes, thrilling, then sickening, then you finish because you came this far.
“Um, I did down an entire box of Micanikes, and I felt like that was a nice metaphor for this movie.”
The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 3:00:38 · Bobby Wagner (0.70 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Sean Fennessey (host): A fan of Chazelle's showy, homage-heavy filmmaking and a self-declared proud member of the Babylon hive. Loves Singin' in the Rain, physical media, genre like Suspiria, and the Immaculate theatrical experience. Can't stand long bad blockbusters, though long ambitious films do not bother him. Hunts movie-night rituals and bits.
Amanda Dobbins (host): Loves melodrama and classic Hollywood, Rudolph Valentino and Betty Davis catalog. Famously prefers Babylon's middle two hours to the opening party. Not a fan of animals, high heels, or party excess, and is skeptical of the film's cohesion even as she respects the filmmaking. Likes Singin' in the Rain and old-fashioned show business.
Chris Ryan (guest): The most openly critical voice on Babylon: admires the virtuosity but says the opening party rings hollow, and that the film holds together less well than he remembered. Relates to P.J. Byrne's character. Fan of scene-level filmmaking, Brad Pitt's persona work, golf and public courses, and menswear (J. Crew, Uniqlo). Sucker for bits like Trump impressions and Zyn.

The show's recurring bits

Drafts: Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument.
Hall of Fame: A star's or director's best, ranked and argued.
Countdowns: Ranked lists, top five or top ten.

Names the transcriber got wrong

Sean Fantasy = Sean Fennessey
Amanda Davin = Amanda Dobbins
Damian/Damon/Giselle/Chisel/Chiselle = Damien Chazelle
Jovanna Deppo / Jovan Adepo = Jovan Adepo
Lee Jung Lee = Li Jun Li; 'anime Wong' = Anna May Wong
Gene Smart = Jean Smart
Spike Jones = Spike Jonze; Herb Sendek = Maurice Sendak
Roy Scavelli = Rory Scovel; Lena Sangren = Linus Sandgren; Kaczinski = Joseph Kosinski
Ryan Johnson's company T Street = Rian Johnson's company T Street
Betty/Benny Davis = Bette Davis; Demi Reynolds = Debbie Reynolds; Carrie Grant/Diane Cannon = Cary Grant/Dyan Cannon
Jess Singer = The Jazz Singer; link cavalier = The Dancing Cavalier; now victory = Now, Voyager
Toby Maguire; Ethan Suppley = Ethan Suplee; Voodoo Mama = Voodoo Mama (score cue)
a birth of a shell = likely The Birth of a Nation; un Chai Chian Andaloo = Un Chien Andalou
Zin pouch = Zyn pouch; Micanikes = Mike and Ikes

The Big Picture: The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (1)

passing (54)

compared (30)

dismissed (7)

anecdote (7)

recommended (7)

Claims (64)

Fun items (26)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong