Josh Slater-Williams Vague Visages Nov 14, 2023

Babel is Crash with delusions of global grandeur; a film that masquerades as a sweeping, humanistic epic, but is instead an ultimately hammy, superficial and miserablist game of connect-the-dots.

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Murtada Elfadl Sundays with Cate Mar 4, 2022 B

Blanchett and Pitt are playing a version of the "ugly Americans abroad" trope. The film does not shy away from presenting them as entitled despite the circumstances that they are in.

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Catherine Springer CathsFilmForum.com Jul 11, 2021

Unlike Crash, where the characters felt like cartoons and stereotypes, these characters are fleshed out and real, and the performances are first-rate, with a performance from Brad Pitt that is his most mature work.

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Jason Adams My New Plaid Pants Jul 2, 2021

I have to wonder if Iñárritu knows how to find any meaning in the endless barrage of misery that spills out of him without tricking it out in some sort of multi-cultural pluralistic hodgepodge of time-looping bull

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Rosa Parra Latinx Lens May 22, 2021 4/5

A look at the interconnectedness between human beings internationally. How our actions and decisions can affect/impact people around us and even in other countries.

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Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Mar 24, 2021 6/10

The acting is exceptional, allowing the loosely connected storylines to garner greater gravity.

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David Lamble Bay Area Reporter May 19, 2020

See Babel while it still illuminates a big screen, for all the clues it contains about our times, as we babble more and more about less and less.

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Ellie Lucas The Dispatch (Lexington, NC) Jun 6, 2019 4/4

[Iñarritu] has captured humanity in all of its flawed glory - fallen yet beautiful, tragic yet hopeful - all crying out to be heard.

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Namrata Joshi Outlook Jan 23, 2019 3/4

There are moments when a lot is left unsaid. There's a remarkable stillness and delicacy as the music and images interplay and do all the talking.

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PJ Nabarro Patrick Nabarro Dec 2, 2018 2/5

An irredeemably overdetermined, far-fetched and transparently schematic piece.

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Megan Basham WORLD Oct 16, 2018

On a practical level it's hard not to see that nearly every calamity in Babel could have been avoided had the characters exercised better judgment

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Heather Huntington ReelzChannel.com Feb 9, 2011 8/10

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Fernando F. Croce CinePassion Aug 28, 2009

The gimmick-machinery whirrs, but the human beings in it can't breath

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Felix Vasquez Jr. Cinema Crazed Apr 29, 2009

An ensemble cast, low-key drama, and tolerable political commentary make "Babel" a gripping success.

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Brian Marder Hollywood.com Nov 20, 2008 4/5

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Jonathan Kiefer Sacramento News & Review Aug 7, 2008 2/5

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Thomas Peyser Style Weekly (Richmond, VA) Jun 1, 2008

Babel...belongs to an unfortunately proliferating genre that might be called the higher kitsch.

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Brandon Fibbs BrandonFibbs.com Feb 28, 2008 7/10

...language acts more as a means to distance and isolate us than aid in our understanding of one another.

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Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault Jul 23, 2007 C-

A lumbering, stitched-together mess.

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Moira Sullivan Movie Magazine International Jul 22, 2007 A

Babel directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is one of the most compelling films to date.

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