This is the high-speed candy-colored f-bomb-littered roller coaster of a movie I really wanted from Suicide Squad. I liked that movie quite a lot, but it deserved more attitude and perhaps a less dire premise. Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey takes those extra steps to fashion a fun, violent, wicked, and smart action flick that feeds off the visuals of the earlier movie while making a strong case for more feminist content in superhero movies.
Along with some intense framing devices -- including an almost-annoying Deadpool-esque voiceover throughout the movie -- the film starts with a few narrative bangs that throw us right into the action. It's been rough for the antihero Harley Quinn after she and her comrades defeated the Enchantress, particularly because the Joker broke up with her. The first act of the movie is the sort of balls-out wacky fun we'd expect from her attempts at coping, and essentially comprises a fever-dream montage of her intoxicated clubbing, adopting a hyena pet named Bruce, cutting her hair, and taking up roller derby. This sequence ends when she drives a semi into the chemical plant where she and Joker became official, blowing it up in a trippy firework explosion. The female empowerment is infectiously fun, but eventually becomes earnest.
Despite the primary title of Birds of Prey, this is really Harley's movie, suggested by its subtitle the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. An unwieldy title, it nevertheless manages to convey the spirit of the picture. Various threads of the story feel at first too convoluted for their own good, as we're yanked around between briefly introduced (or not introduced) characters at different times in the narrative. I'd have to rewatch the damn thing to figure out exactly which scene took place first chronologically. But that seems to be the point: if this is Harley's story, she's telling it as it would make sense to her. Hence the voiceover narration, I guess, which might be the first time I've felt voiceover is not only justified but possibly necessary to the telling of a particular story.
When crime lord Roman Sionis (who moonlights as the Black Mask) realizes Harley Quinn is single, he prepares to kill her off to eliminate an irritating liability. But the resourceful Harley offers to help Roman find a precious diamond that will lead him to a fortune. Silly MacGuffin as it may be, this diamond has been swallowed by street thief Cassandra Cain, whom Harley tracks down and saves from the Gotham police as well as bounty hunters and Roman's thugs. The two women bond even as Harley feeds Cassandra laxatives by the bottle, and the movie becomes a cat-and-mouse chase with lots of moving parts, including Black Canary (who works for Roman but informs to detective Renee Montoya) and Huntress (whose personal vendetta isn't fully revealed until late in the film). These women are all secondary in the screenplay, but are given strong scenes that showcase the actresses and their impressive physicality well.
Once the various pieces come together in a fabulously satisfying scene inside a fun house at an abandoned amusement park, the "Birds of Prey" take magnificent flight. Yan masterfully handles a balance between comedy and violence, keeping her unique aesthetic vision true to the material while serving up full helpings of technical accomplishments. She works brilliantly well with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (one of my favorites) to craft a fluid visual approach to the kind of hands-on violence we don't often get even in male-dominated superhero movies. These women are taking their punches and dealing out even harder ones, and the camera catches it all in dynamic, kinetic takes. And while Christina Hodson's (whose previous work is nothing special) screenplay is a little frenetic, it works beautifully in crafting our understanding of Harley's character -- and the very specific world in which she lives (this is not a Gotham we've seen before) -- as well as each of its ensemble cast.
I hope these Birds flock together again soon.
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