IN THEATRES: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Following her break-up with the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is trying to find her feet as a solo act while also dodging all of people who were previously too scared of her boyfriend to seek vengeance for her past actions.

Prime among these various miscreants is Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), a minor crime boss who is making a major play to become the kingpin of Gotham's underworld. To do this he needs a diamond that has been stolen by a young pickpocket, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco).

Seeing a way out of her predicament, Harley agrees to join the hunt for the young girl.

Hijinks ensues.

What a fun movie. I do not usually do this but I ended up checking out this movie twice.

What I really liked was the way the movie walked the line between the anarchy of Harley Quinn and centring her as a protagonist going through a major emotional journey. There are elements of this journey that do not quite land, but let's focus on the good stuff first.

I have not seen Suicide Squad, and I do not really intend to. Birds of Prey clearly recognises this and gives the viewer a neat little animated prologue that gives us the meat of Harley's life with the Joker, without ever showing the green haired one onscreen.

The movie is all about women overcoming the patriarchal forces in their lives - not just Harley's toxic ex, but Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) has to deal with her successful busts stolen by her chief; Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) is under the thumb of her boss; and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) .

The first time I watched the movie, I was a little underwhelmed by the scrambled chronology of the first act, but it worked on second viewing. It adds to the sense that this is Harley's story, and she is losing track of important details.

As referenced in a previous review, one of my favourite comic book movies is Batman Returns, and a lot of that movie's power comes from the portrayal of Catwoman/Selina Kyle by Michelle Pfieffer. In a movie filled with outsiders, she feels like the genuine article – neither hero or villain, she feels like a fully dimensional woman and an over-the-top agent of chaos. She manages to have both pathos and fun.

It is a hard balance to strike -particularly nowadays, when filmmakers seem to confuse drama with anti-fun (i.e. the DCEU pre-Justice League). With Harley Quinn, you have a similar conundrum: how do you balance the story of a woman overcoming trauma and taking control of her life, while also holding true to the character’s sense of anarchy and whimsy.

While the balance never quite reaches those heights, BoP’s version of Harley Quinn is pretty fun, and Robbie handles the character’s pain without trivialising it for easy laughs. For this character, like Pfieffer’s Catwoman, anarchy is a release.   

Unlike her ex-boyfriend, her chaotic schemes and pranks start from specific needs: The destruction of Acme Chemicals is a way to signal her freedom, and her attack on the police station is a way to get her out of a jam.

While Harley’s staggered growth is centred, the title characters manage to hold their own. Because the movie orbits around Quinn, the title characters get less screen-time. In a certain sense, the movie (especially in its final third) feels like a pilot for a TV show. They are all involved in variations of Quinn’s plight which does bring them together, but it does feel a tad perfunctory. If there is a disappointment to the movie, it is that there are not more of their adventures available to watch (yet).

As Montoya, Rosie Perez offsets the cliché of the tough cop with wit and empathy. She also gives the role a physicality that makes her a believable opponent for the other characters. She ends up being the rock-solid foundation for the wilder antics of Quinn and the BS Montoya has to put up with from her male colleagues on the force.

It is great to see Perez in this movie in such a big role. I was impressed that all the actresses (aside from Robbie) were not in their 20s. There something refreshing about getting to see a broader range of women getting involved genre fare like this, and they are not consigned to specific parts of the film's palette - each of them is a specific kind of action hero, with their own specific strengths, and all the characters are funny, in ways that are specific to their characters.

Obvious stuff, but in Hollywood movies, this obvious stuff is rare.

The casting of Birds of Prey is the most obvious example of how this movie conceptualizes the women at its heart, and how it not interested in turning them into the hyper-masculine action heroines. If they do, the filmmakers highlight the cliché (Montoya) or perform some light revisionism in their portrayal (Huntress).

As the film’s lone masked vigilante, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Huntress as an awkward loner, who is so focused on her mission that she has already built a mythology around her persona that only she knows – everyone else has different ideas of who she is (and what her nickname is). There is a version of this movie in which this character is foregrounded and treated as a cool badass. In this movie, she’s a weirdo in a hoodie. A badass, but still a bit of a weirdo.

In a different way, Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s Black Canary feels like an obvious action heroine. She may be hard as nails, but for most of the movie, she is reluctant to get involved. Feeding into the movie's theme, she is also pragmatic when it comes to the people who have power over her, like her employer Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). She sees herself as a small fish in a big pond.

·         Ella Jay Bascois also great as the no-nonsense Cassandra Cain. The script gives her a sense of agency and never reduces her to a plot point. 

All the characters reflect different versions of Harley's plight. They have all been put through the ringer by men and chewed up. All these women are trying to break out of the roles and circumstance they are in - even Winstead's Huntress's mission of vengeance is prompted by the violence of men seeking power.

Unlike a lot of action/comic book movies, Birds of Prey has some solid bad guys who serve a dramatic role that fits the movie’s theme will also staying in keeping with the movie’s tone. It also helps that the villain they face is formidable.

Ewan McGregor is having a great time as Black Mask. An egomaniac and  a narcissist, he is deeply insecure and is constantly exposing the deep sense of resentment that he feels toward the world - particularly the women in it. 

McGregor leans into the character's self-centredness. I often find his American accent forced, but here it feels like a put-on, a way to put himself over as more in control than he is.

Even better is Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz - paranoid and psychopathic, he possesses a quiet menace that complements McGregor's histrionics. The great thing about this pair is that - aside from Sionis's mask at the climax - they are just evil men. They have a creepy co-dependant dynamic that makes them far scarier than your usual super villains.

Even though this movie does highlight the misogyny and sexism of their world, and the movie is graphically violent, there is no attempt or hint of sexual violence to the villains' actions. They just want to kill Harley and her comrades because they are obstacles to their goals. 

As far as negatives go, I question the necessity for the R rating. The movie only features a few real moments of gore, but they feel out of place. There is one sequence that is specifically designed to highlight how bad the bad guys are, but it feels like a different movie. There is a scene later in the movie where Black Mask is screaming at a woman to dance on a table, and it felt far more violent and disturbing in its power dynamics than the gory execution he commits. 

The other thing I questioned was one specific beat in Harley's arc. I liked the idea of superimposing Harley's abusive relationship with the Joker over her conflict with Black Mask. The only thing that I wish had more attention was the character’s low point. 

On my first viewing, I noted around the point when Harley and Cass are hanging out in her den, the story starts to stall. My issue was clarified on re-watch: her betrayal by her landlord lacked punch. We are introduced to him a scene earlier, and then he betrays her. The movie does not really spend enough time on their relationship, so his betrayal does not hit in the way it is intended, and it feels a bit forced in how it leads to the split between Harley and Cass.

While a key piece of connective tissue falls flat, the film’s expression of its central theme is strong enough to push it to the finish line. On top of that, the characters are well-drawn and get at least a scene to themselves.

Following the superficial profundity of Joker, Birds of Prey feels like a cheeky middle finger. Whereas that movie defanged its themes and slathered itself in one-note grimness, Birds of Prey shows that you can tackle serious themes and also have fun as well.

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