BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN
My kids are big fans of the terrible movie known as “Suicide Squad” and particularly of the character Harley Quinn, who is played by Australian actress, Margot Robbie. For a period of our lives, my wife and I were subjected to this movie on our television screens almost consistently. It was a different kind of hell, because this was a movie that I could not stand. I thought it was terrible, particularly from a design point of view (I mean seriously, have you seen how Jared Leto's version of The Joker looks like in that garbage). I will say that the only bright light in the film is Robbie herself, although her rendition of Harley Quinn wasn't exactly faithful to the comic book character. Anyway, my kids were dying to see more from the character and were beside themselves when they found out that there was going to be a movie focused on Harley Quinn herself. While the film was being made, it did not interest me in the slightest. I didn't follow any behind the scenes stuff or look at set photos that were on the internet. It was only when the first trailer for the film came out that I started to take notice.........and it looked absolutely terrible. Worse than “Suicide Squad”. Maybe worse than anything before it. There is a scene that begins the trailer with Harley visiting a police station reporting a crime that looked......I had no words.....I was stunned how bad this thing looked. What was the tone they were going for?????
As luck would have it, when the film was rated, it got an MA15+. For those of you that do not live in Australia, that is a “restricted” rating, meaning that my kids (who were 10 and 12 at the time of release) would need a parent with them if they wanted to see this film. Unfortunately, I drew the short straw, and had to take my eldest and her friend to see “Birds of Prey”. I will be honest, I was dreading every second of it and was expecting to rate the film one star. My expectations were at their lowest you could say. The film began, and well “F*** ME”, I loved every damn second of this very fun and demented film!!!! It was sooooooo good and nothing what I was expecting. As crazy and as mad as this film appeared, it all came together like magic. Director Cathy Yan did a phenomenal job at pulling this all together and just making it work. And it also taught me a little thing about context, as that scene in the police station that I so hated in the trailer, turned out to be my favourite scene in the whole film, and totally worked once in the context of all the scenes that came before it and followed it.
One of my favourite things that I love about “Birds of Prey”, and something I think that gets totally misunderstood as sloppy filmmaking from Yan, is just how deliberately messy the film is. The way the story is told is manic; it zips from one place to another, in a confusing fashion, but that is because the story is being told by a “very” unreliable narrator, one Harley Quinn. She is certainly no storyteller, because she loses focus regularly and gets lost in her own tale, so the film comes across as very messy. However, once Harley has caught us, the viewer, up on the tale where it is at, and we are in the present, director Yan takes over the film and presents the tale in a beautiful, easy to understand fashion. To me that is genius! To let Harley Quinn take over her own film, and Yan being smart enough to keep everything together, so it still all works....... I was so impressed by all of this. As I said, Cathy Yan does an excellent job of telling her story coherently and here action scenes are a perfect example. Unlike what has become the norm in superhero movies where it is hard to make out anything during action moments, in “Birds of Prey” you always now exactly what is going on. Choreography is succinct and Yan uses the geography of her sets perfectly so you know where everyone is at any given moment.
Margot Robbie's performance is also something to behold, because she goes all out in her portrayal of Harley Quinn, which is in a much more crazy state of mind than the previous film the character showed up in. She could've fallen completely on her face here, but does the complete opposite. The fact that “Bombshell” hit Australian cinemas about two weeks prior to “Birds of Prey”, it gave the perfect opportunity to see just how good an actress Robbie really is, as she is excellent in both films, but so completely different in them too. However, all the cast are brave in this and they all obviously trusted their director too, to go so far out in their roles. I initially wasn't sure about Ewan McGregor's performance when he hit the screen, but by the end of the film I loved his character and the absurdity behind it all. Speaking of absurdity, that is another thing that works so well in the film, is the embracing of the weird and the odd. One moment of genius that I adored was a seriously messed up version of Harley (dressed as a demented Marilyn Monroe) singing “Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend” taken from the Howard Hawks film “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. There is also the egg sandwich scene, the ridiculous (cgi) hyena, and the rest of the girls who make up the Birds of Prey. It is all crazy, and it all works.
The film looks great, it has great energy, its packed full of colour and movement and it is a hell of a good time at the cinema. That is why it ended up being my “Biggest Surprise” of 2020; I went in expecting to hate the film and give it one star, and came out loving it and giving it four. As a side note, my wife was stunned by how much I liked it, and ended up taking my youngest daughter to see it the following night and they too, also loved “Birds of Prey”.
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