Babel
Paramount Vantage | Release Date: October 27, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
In their last collaboration, "21 Grams," the director Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga did syntactical acrobatics to disguise what a dreary and exploitive little soap opera they’d made. Their new movie, Babel, is more mysterious and less coherent. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Babel is an infuriatingly well-made disaster. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
I might buy Babel if it had any real interest in its characters, but it's too busy moving them around its mechanistic chessboard to explore any nuances or depths. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJim Ridley
Puzzle master Arriaga may be the Will Shortz of globalized hand-wringing, but the by-now-predictable jigsawing of his scripts reeks of desperation. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
The ultimate poor judgment: the decision to put Babel before the camera. That defies comprehension in any language.
40
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Yet as sophisticated a piece of filmmaking as it is, it seems hamstrung by the banality at its center; that's why it never assembles into a satisfying whole. It's pretty -- oh, what's the word? -- stupid in its dramatization of the silly little connections that unite us, and it's somewhat selective in its choice of them. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Unlike many colleagues, I'm not a fan of "Amores Perros" or "21 Grams," scripted by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu. This conclusion to their trilogy is easier to follow as a narrative, but it's even more pretentious, generalizing about the state of the modern world. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's a film of unquestioned visual artistry, and the filmmakers' empathy and human understanding are apparent moment to moment, scene by scene. But despite sensitive performances, it's an experiment that fizzles. Read full review
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