Babylon: Review, When is Babylon released in UK cinemas, runtime, cast, trailer and age rating

The star studded Babylon is set to be 2023's first big blockbuster - and could win an Oscar to boot. Cr: Paramount Pictures.

Set to be 2023’s first big blockbuster release, we are now just week’s away from the UK release of Babylon.

Packed to the brim with some of the biggest names in film, the epic film will chronicle the rise and fall of multiple characters during Hollywood's transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s.

Directed by the award winning Damien Chazelle, it will be his first cinematic release since 2020’s First Man starring Ryan Gosling and is in the running for an Academy Award with several betting sites tipping Babylon to pick up a nomination for the Oscars in the new year.

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Babylon cast

The film has an extremely solid casting which sees A-lister Brad Pitt in the lead role as Jack Conrad.

Alongside the Fight Club star will be fellow big names Margot Robbie as aspiring actor Nellie LaRoy, Tobey Maguire as mob boss James McKay and Diego Calva as Manny Torres, a Mexican-American film assistant who aspires to have a larger role within the film industry.

The rest of the main cast members are completed by Olivia Wilde (Don’t Worry, Darling), Jean Smart (Fargo), Jovan Adepo (Mother!), Li Jun Li (The Humbling). Elsewhere there are confirmed roles for J.C Currais, Jimmy Ortega, Shane Powers, Troy Metcalf, Phoebe Tonkin, Hansford Prince.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea is almost credited with an appearance as Bob Levine.

Babylon film review

At 16/1 via SkyBet, Babylon is one of the outside favourites to lift the award for Best Picture at the Oscars and has received largely positive reviews from critics.

Highly respected film site iMDb ranked the film at 7.4 out of 10, with 917 of 5,339 IMDb users rating the film a 10 out of 10. However, another respected film reviews site, Rotten Tomatoes, currently rated Babylon at 55% by critics, and just a 50% audience review score.

Kyle Smith from the Wall Street Journal said the film was “one of the year’s richest and most ambitious films” while fellow film critic Samuel Leggett Jr. from JVS cited it had “some very strong moments, well acted scenes & dissects levels of negatives/positives of created cinema.”

CNN’s Brian Lowry was critical of Babylon though, saying it was a “sprawling, messy, three-hour-plus endurance test isn’t ready for its closeup” and Allison Gillmor from the Winnipeg Free Press echoed his sentiments, adding “the three-hour runtime is the least of this frantic, loud film’s egregious excesses.”

When is Babylon released in UK cinemas, runtime and age rating

Be prepared to bring plenty snacks and popcorn for this one as Babylon has a running time of an epic three hours and nine minutes, which is significantly longer than Chazelle’s previous cinema hits La La Land and Whiplash.

The BBFC have rated the film as an 18 for strong sex, nudity and drug misuse.

Babylon will launched in UK cinemas on Friday 20 January, with the likes of Cineworld already taking bookings for ViP, SuperScreen and Standard screenings.