Goofy, stylish Birds wins you over
Birds of Prey (R16, 109 mins) Directed by Cathy Yan Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★★
Iguess there were two ways this could have gone. Either DC, which owns the character, could have taken their cues from the success of Joker and sent Harley Quinn down a dark and psychopathic journey into faux-social realism, with a director whose notes-to-self every morning would simply have read, ‘‘be like Scorsese, but without understanding why’’. Or, they could carry on with the hyperstylised madness of Suicide Squad, of which Birds of Prey is a kind of sequel.
Happily, I think, DC has chosen the latter. And after the absolute mess that was Suicide Squad, they have perhaps handed in a film that is more coherent, better designed and just plain fun than we might have dared to hope.
Margot Robbie returns as the much troubled Quinn. She has split with the Joker for good – and is processing her grief by getting seriously messed-up in some of Gotham City’s most notorious and gang-controlled bars. If word gets out that she is no longer ‘‘the Joker’s girl’’, her life-span could be measured in minutes, so many enemies has she made. But as long as people think she is still sailing under the aegis of the prince of crime, she’s safe. Into the timelines comes a young pick-pocket who may have swallowed a diamond that many mobsters want to get their hands on, a tough and undervalued woman cop with organised crime in her sights, a nightclub chanteuse who might be informing on her mafia bosses, and a crossbow-wielding assassin who seems to be pursuing her own, mysterious agenda.
The genius of Cathy Yan’s (Dead
Pigs) directing, and of Christina Hodson’s (Bumblebee) script, is that what should have been a by-thenumbers superhero sequel with a plot that only exists as a series of challenges our hero must face, actually holds our attention with a disorientating cut-up structure across a whole bunch of time-shifts and fourth wall-breaking. It’s frenetic, giddily paced, stylish, and bounces along with a likeable goofiness that won me over more than any DC movie has in years.
In fact, the only comparison I can make is to Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Think of Birds of Prey as a silly, but well made, reboot of a couple of that film’s multiple storylines. If that sounds like something you might enjoy, then have a look at it.