Friday, 14 February 2020

Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) (2020) - Movie Review



Birds Of Prey is one of the first comic books I remember reading when I first really started getting into them. I have the Manly Library to thank for that, as their graphic novel section introduced me to shit like Sandman, Transmetropolitan and Batman: The Long Halloween; stuff that would not only further the path that Watchmen carved out for me, but would end up influencing my own work in a number of ways. And during that time, I just happened to pick up a trade paperback of Gail Simone’s run on BOP, and man, is it a kick-ass read.
It was one of my bigger initial exposures to superhero fiction, and between the inviting characters and Simone’s uncanny sense of balancing action bombast with genuine heart, it had me hooked. I still get a little misty-eyed thinking about Black Canary’s adopted daughter tasting pancakes for the first time. Needless to say, I was hyped as fuck for a feature-length version of that, and while that may not entirely be what I got, that doesn’t make me any less entertained by it.

For a film meant to separate Suicide Squad’s Harley Quinn from the Joker, everything here certainly handles the job in superb fashion. Robbie has definitely refined her character, managing to balance everything from the psychosis to the psychiatric training to the love for the simpler things like cheese sandwiches, and the story as a whole does well in treating her journey for her own identity. It is genuinely aggravating hearing the conversations about how she is totally going to run back into the Joker’s arms at some point, because this is still how the world treats those in abusive relationships. Blerg.
Beyond her, the rest of the cast either stay surprisingly true to their paper counterparts, or are reshuffled into something fresh enough to make up for the discrepencies. Rosie Perez as detective Renee Montoya fits her sardonic mood nicely, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary makes for some nice nuance in her performance, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead finally proves that, yes, she has been ripe for action hero status for a long-ass time and it’s time to pay up that interest. She manages to nail not only the Birds Of Prey-era Huntress, but also her original origin as an alternate universe daughter of Batman. In so few words, she basically deconstructs the trauma and rage issues behind that kind of dark knight mentality.
As for the reshuffles, we got Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain… who really isn’t Cassandra Cain, when you get right down to it. No ‘language of violence’ shit, no haunted past, and for a character who got so badly sidelined in the comic book DC universe, it kind of sucks that we’re not getting the real article here. Then again, as the street-wise pickpocket we see here, she ain’t no slouch either, and her chemistry with Robbie is hella tight. Then there’s the big bad of the story, Ewan McGregor as Black Mask, who is easily the gayest comic book villain I have ever seen on the big screen. It is honestly kind of amazing just deliciously camp he gets while still staying dangerous, aided in no small part by Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz, and if these two aren’t a couple, I’ll eat my computer.

Then there’s the visuals, which are basically a more refined version of the technicolour punk aesthetic of Suicide Squad, with everything from the garish colours to the fight scenes making for incredible eye candy. Stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio, who also worked on the John Wick movies, does some astounding things here in just how energetic and hard-hitting these throwdowns get. It also carries that Leitch/Stahelski effect in its use of fighting style as character building, showing Harley Quinn in particular using a combination of acrobatics, roller derby and swing-batter-batter weaponry to decimate the thugs around her.
As for the story, while it’s definitely elevated by Harley’s meta-mission to make her mark outside of the Joker’s proximity (not to mention the highly cool remixes of oldies like Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend and Sway in the soundtrack), the plot itself is quite muddled. Told in erratically non-linear fashion through Harley’s narration, there’s quite a bit of chessboard storytelling here in how all the separate members of the BOP interact, clash, and finally team up. It admittedly fits with the quite anarchic tone of the production, something furthered by this film’s higher rating which allows the fight scenes no mercy, but as a whole, it’s probably the least interesting part of this whole thing.

Which is honestly a bit weird, because if there’s one thing I can absolutely say about this, it is most certainly interesting. Maybe it’s because of how great it is seeing the Birds Of Prey on the big screen (save for Oracle, but quite frankly, setting up that character would likely require one or two additional films to do properly), maybe it’s because of how much queer energy is radiating off of the screen (so many homo- and bi-sexuals on screen, and yet the film doesn’t make it a big deal; yass queen!), or maybe it’s just how bad-ass the fight scenes are, but I’m quite happy with this. The DC Extended Universe is still on an uphill trajectory, and here’s hoping that continues once we get to Wonder Woman later on this year.

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