History YMMV / Babylon2022

** Ruth is one of the most popular minor characters for being a competent and capable female director in a time when women didn't get many opportunities, her take-no-shit attitude, and for being played by Creator/DamienChazelle's wife Olivia Hamilton, who gets to show off her surprisingly good acting skills and comedic timing.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: As noted by multiple reviews made in the wake of the film's release, the concept of following a starlet as she tries to navigate TheRoaringTwenties and try to adapt to the changing times (as "talkies" took over silent films) was generally seen as interesting, though it's lost in a haze of other subplots that go nowhere and are functionally dropped by the third act. The film condenses [[spoiler:Nellie's career downfall and death while living in poverty to an expositional newspaper clip during a montage near the end.]] This led reviewers to suggest that the format would have worked better as a miniseries without the trappings of the era (particularly as the opening ''half-hour'' party sequence has little to do with the rest of the film, beyond shock value and the set-up for Nellie's arrival on the Hollywood scene).

** The ''Babylon'' hive mind[[note]]A small but very devoted fandom for ''Babylon'' formed in the weeks following its release, especially on Twitter and Letterboxd, which has led to many jokes that the fans are just a collective HiveMind. The fandom, in turn, has embraced this and frequently joke about it themselves, with "the ''Babylon'' hive" being adopted as a FanCommunityNickname.[[/note]]

* HilariousInHindsight: The character Nellie [=LaRoy=] being a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Creator/ClaraBow becomes this when you find out nearly 10 years before Babylon released, a {{Retraux}} SilentFilm with a very similar name, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Babylon Return To Babylon]], came out and had the real Clara Bow as a character.

* BrokenBase: The copious amount of borderline NC-17 graphic content, especially in the infamous opening party sequence, is either a perfect way of capturing the debauched hedonism of the era it depicts or needless shock value that comes across as Creator/DamienChazelle's attempt at trying to be edgy (it's worth noting that the graphic content is actually ''toned down'' from the original script, which was far worse in this regard).

* FanPreferredCutContent: Nora, Sidney's LoveInterest from the original 2019 draft of the script, is quite well-liked among those who have read it. Some fans would've liked if she appeared in the actual movie, even if just for a scene or two.

* JerkassWoobie: While Nellie is incredibly self-destructive and arguably brought what happened to her on herself, she was told repeatedly by everyone around her that she'd never amount to anything, it's implied that she didn't have the best upbringing from what we see of both her parents, and overall she just seems to want to prove that she's more than anyone ever expected of her. [[spoiler:It's also hard not to feel bad for her given her eventual fate of dying in a hotel room at the age of thirty-four and subsequently fading into obscurity, especially due to how badly she wanted to be a star.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: As noted by multiple reviews made in the wake of the film's release, the concept of following a starlet as she tries to navigate TheRoaringTwenties and try to adapt to the changing times (as "talkies" took over silent films) was generally seen as interesting, though it's lost in a haze of other subplots that go nowhere and are functionally dropped by the third act. This led reviewers to suggest that the format would have worked better as a miniseries without the trappings of the era (particularly as the opening ''half-hour'' party sequence has little to do with the rest of the film, beyond shock value and the set-up for Nellie's arrival on the Hollywood scene).