‘Fake, Superficial, Kitschy’: Margot Robbie’s Passionate Defense of Her Most Controversial Movie Gets an Instant Slap-Down

Margot Robbie has been in a lot of critically acclaimed movies. The Wolf of Wall Street and Barbie come to mind, just to name a few. She’s proven to be rather versatile, even completely knocking it out of the park as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. That being said, all actors have a few misses, and Babylon is certainly one of them for Robbie.

Babylon was released back in 2022, and was very critically divisive. While it did get somewhat decent ratings from a select few critics, its performance on Rotten Tomatoes is subpar, clocking in at a 57% approval rating. While guesting on the Talking Pictures podcast, Robbie spoke out about Babylon and said she didn’t understand why people didn’t love the movie. She wondered if Babylon was one of those movies that would get a second wind 20 years down the line, where people watch it for the first time and are also utterly baffled that it was so critically panned.

“I love it. I don’t get it either. I know I am biased because I am very close to the project and I obviously believe in it, but I still can’t figure out why people hated it. I wonder if in 20 years people are going to be like, ‘Wait, “Babylon” didn’t do well at the time?’ Like when you hear that ‘Shawshank Redemption’ was a failure at the time and you’re like like, ‘How is that possible?’”

Fans were quick to rebut her defense of Babylon, though, as they all took to social media to explain exactly why the movie was so poorly received. Simply put, it feels inauthentic, opulent, and possibly even too self-indulgent and superficial.

Like any good ol’ divisive movie, however, Babylon also has its defenders. While its fans acknowledge that the movie does have its flaws, it should be appreciated for its boldness and how chaotic it is as a whole. And sure, there are certainly elements to the film that should be admired.

Babylon was directed by Damien Chazelle, who’s best known for making La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. While I personally wish La La Land had more musical elements to it, there’s no denying that the film had a lot of heart and a story to tell that felt genuine. Contrast that to Babylon, where it feels like the movie’s focus is more on the opulence and spectacle of everything, rather than the characters and story. But hey, I’m not a film critic. What do I know?

Like Robbie, Babylon‘s fans seem to believe that the movie was ahead of its time as well. And who knows? Maybe just as Robbie predicted, it’ll pick up steam again a couple decades down the road and become a cult classic.