Rains Over Babel is a lot like the line to the urinals in the men’s room right after a Kathy Griffin concert: a fabulously shrill invasion of everything bland and antiseptic. The film is a kaleidoscope of color and sensation that squeezes all the grey from reality. Here, we have that classic Jean Genet subculture method of using style as a form of transcendence from the mundane or repressive. The film transmits the importance of transgressive self-expression, showing how a tube of lipstick can be used as a photon cannon against all that is boring. For those of us who were yelled at in public decades ago about how we dressed by entire passing school buses, it is a marvelous cinematic future to arrive at. We are put into a world painted twelve shades of punk bathed in rays of ultraviolet, where weird is normal and normal is really weird. Every neon tornado takes us over another midnight rainbow to a place filled with more freedom and fun. Essentially, filmmaker Sol has delivered us the Liquid Sky of the new millennium. It has all of the same queer edge and finery of that under-seen 80s cult classic without the narco-romanticism or rape elements that now hold its legacy back further.
A still from Rains Over Babel by Gala del Sol, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
“…a marvelous cinematic future to arrive at…”
Sten Olson, the magnificent cinematographer guiding our gaze, puts a perfect composition on every shot. You could say the craftsmanship makes every frame a painting, but I can’t think of any paintings (outside of Clive Barker’s) that are as exciting as the images in Rains Over Babel. The mind-blowing costumes look amazing against the streetwise surreal feel of Jaime Luna’s stunning art direction and production design. Also, having everything lit by sexy neon tubes is a genius backhand to the senses. The hyper-colorized revolving palette Sol puts to use on the visuals could give even the Italians a run for their money stylistically. The story, as bizarre as it is, ends up being very easy to follow.
The overall flavor of the dark fantasy elements seems very Neil Gaiman-ish, which is a good thing, as access to the real thing is now in very short supply. Just like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, there is a queer sensibility throughout that doesn’t get into actual sex until the exact perfect moment. This movie isn’t just an instant cult classic, it is a cult classic by design, the talking lizard is a dead giveaway. All fellow long-time lovers of cult movies will find everything they have always been waiting for in Rains Over Babel. Totally transgressive, delightfully deviant and absolutely addictive. By the close of the decade, Rains Over Babel will be standing high in its heels among the greatest movies of the new 20s.
Rains Over Babel screened at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
"…transgressive, delightfully deviant and absolutely addictive."
