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| Margot Robbie in Birds of Prey. Image courtesy Warner Bros. |
Somewhere between the innumerable
mangled limbs and supersized bursts of energy that coat the surface
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley
Quinn is unbridled rage against an oppressive society. While the
film doesn't have the depth to tackle the depths of the cause for its
rage, it has plenty of grit and tenacity that nearly make up for it.
This is a film dedicated to vengeance and the unlikely friendships
that arise from that pursuit.
Birds of Prey picks up sometime
after the conclusion of Suicide Squad. Harley Quinn (Margot
Robbie) is single after breaking things off with the Joker and
struggling to cope with life without per pudding. Despite her best
efforts to start over, she soon finds herself in the sights of
aspiring crime lord and professional chauvinist Roman Sionis (an
enthusiastic Ewan McGregor) and his psychotic underling Victor Zsasz
(Chris Messina). Roman threatens to kill Harley unless she can find a
diamond in the possession of young pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella
Jay Basco). Also on the case are Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie
Perez), who is working with lounge singer Black Canary (Jurnee
Smollett-Bell), and the mysterious Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)
who is out for revenge. Roman soon double crosses Harley, and it's up
to her, Renee, Black Canary, and Huntress to protect Cassandra and
stop Roman from becoming the most powerful villain in Gotham.
Birds of Prey is the most brutal
of the D.C. films. Every fight scene functions as an excuse to break
somebody's legs or take a wild swing at a skull with an aluminum
baseball bat to inflict as much pain as possible. The film gets
pretty hardcore, culminating in an absolutely vicious final kill that
leaves folks cringing from the delirious excess of the endeavor.
Birds of Prey combines the grounded violence of the Batman
flicks with the Looney Tunes shorts it references to create
this bizarre concoction of cartoonish human pain. The surreal
violence fits the reality of Harley, who serves as the protagonist
and the film's narrator. Harley's world is vicious and silly,
heightened even more by the heartbreak from ending a long-term
relationship. This is a breakup movie at its core, so it makes sense
for Harley Quinn to shuffle through anger and grief to find some
value in her self after shedding the last vestiges of her
relationship. It takes a while, but in the case of any breakup Harley
realizes she's better off alone than with a man who treats her
poorly.
Even taking account Harley's role as a
twisted narrator, Birds of Prey makes a few unnecessarily
uncomfortable narrative choices. One scene, in which Harley is nearly
date raped (Black Canary reluctantly comes to the rescue), is a
bothersome trope that is ultimately unnecessary to serve either of
its purposes. Removing Harley's filter for a moment, the scene exists
as a character development arc for Black Canary to showcase her
battle against her conscience and her adeptness as a brawler. Both
are either referenced or made evident frequently before and after and
could be introduced independent of an attempted rape. Adding Harley's
filter back though reflects the film's underlying complication with
its critique of societal misogyny. Birds of Prey is not subtle
with its depictions of gross men doing gross things, but the film
misses out on exploration of the nuances that allow these things to
happen. There is a lot of potential for Harley to wail on a dude
cutting in front of her in line or interrupting her in the midst of a
speech, which would be as cathartic as beating up a pair of attempted
racists. Birds of Prey had a lot of options it could take to
emphasize its points about misogyny, so resorting to rape attempts to
prove the point is cliché and dents some of the film's thematic
resonance.
But there remains satisfaction with
aggressors, especially as the film's female stars come together to
fight against an army of male oppressors. The final fight has a few
nice little moments to show the characters bonding amid the cascade
of bullets and broken bones that add a feminine touch to the carnage.
The sequence and the final cool down before the credits roll merges
the raging sexism and Harley's personal journey to a logical
conclusion. In a world in which men are obnoxiously dominant and
perpetually dangerous, it makes sense for women to band together to
help and protect one another. Birds of Prey isn't a paragon of
feminism, but it at least allows viewers to blow off a little steam
by living vicariously through its female heroes and anti-heroes.
Review:
Three out of Five Stars
Click
here
to see the trailer.
Rating:
R
Run
time: 109 minutes
Genre:
Action
tl;dr
What
Worked: Margot
Robbie,
Ewan
McGregor, Huntress
What
Fell Short: Tropes
What
To Watch Instead:
Mad
Love
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