The lives of four families across the world are irreparably
​damaged after a random act of violence occurs in Morocco.

DRAMA

Babel (2006)

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Written by Guillermo Arriaga

Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza, 
Gael García Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi, Kôji Yakusho,
Boubker Ait El Caid, Said Tarchani, Mustapha Rachidi

Oscar Wins - Best Original Score (Gustavo Santaolalla)

Oscar Nominations - Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress
(Adriana Barraza), Best Supporting Actress (Rinko Kikuchi),
​Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing

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Connor Eyzaguirre

September 11, 2020

8/10

Babel is a powerful movie that exemplifies the randomness of fate better than any film I've seen in a while. It's incredibly bleak, but with the faintest sliver of hope that keeps everyone going. Iñárritu has been proving his massive directing talent for decades, and this one should've netted him his first directing Oscar. With a powerful cast and four poignant, captivating, interconnected tales of pain, distress, and damage, Babel is a film that should not have been overlooked.

We open with two kids in Morocco testing out a rifle their father bought from a friend. They shoot it at a tour bus and hit an American woman (Blanchett) in the neck. Her husband (Pitt) gets her to a nearby village while they wait for an ambulance that may not be coming. At home, their nanny (Barraza) is forced to take their kids to Mexico to attend her son's wedding, but border patrol won't let her bring them back. Meanwhile, in Japan, a young deaf woman (Kikuchi) is grieving her mother's suicide. It's all connected and it's all powerful storytelling.

Babel will keep you engaged from beginning to end. It's one of
Iñárritu's strongest films, and that's really saying something. Brad Pitt gives a lights-out performance that nobody really paid any attention to. Same goes for the film itself. Here we are, fourteen years later, and I have never heard anyone even mention this film. It doesn't deserve to be trapped in 2006. It should be considered a modern classic, because it is.