Babel (2006)

Babel is a 143-minute game of telephone where every single call goes to the worst possible outcome. Alejandro González Iñárritu cuts between Morocco, the U.S.-Mexico border and Tokyo, and the links between the stories are so carefully engineered that you can see the gears turning. It’s a lot of misery in a row, and some of it feels arranged rather than lived. When it works, though, it really works. Rinko Kikuchi is extraordinary as Chieko, a deaf teenager in Tokyo who’s furious at how invisible she feels, and the club scene where the sound drops out puts you right inside her head. Adriana Barraza breaks your heart as Amelia, a nanny whose one bad call snowballs in the desert. Brad Pitt does some of his rawest acting on a phone. It made $135.3 million worldwide on a reported $25M. A 6.6 because the performances are brave and the structure works a little too hard to prove its point. $7,583 says you text someone ’we should talk more’ tonight, then stare at the reply like it’s in another language.

What works: Rinko Kikuchi and Adriana Barraza give fearless, heartbreaking performances, and the Tokyo club sequence uses sound in a way you won’t forget.

What doesn’t: The coincidences linking the stories feel engineered, and the unbroken run of bad luck makes the film feel heavier and longer than it needs to.

Who it’s for: Viewers who like big, interlocking dramas and don’t mind walking away a little wrung out.