Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey

Score:  B+

Directed by Cathy Yan
Starring Margot Robbie, Ewan McGregor, Rosie Perez, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Running time: 109 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  Birds of Prey sees Margot Robbie's villain/hero breakout Harley Quinn get her own feature, and it's both a stylish and well-made effort.  Robbie is great once again as the unique clown princess, and she's joined by an impressive supporting cast of friends.  It's not a total success, but Birds of Prey does some new things for a superhero film to both entertain and even go a little further.  Not for everyone, but it's also not just for superhero fans.  Well recommended.


The longtime villainous duo of the Joker and Harley Quinn (Robbie) have broken up - leaving the jilted Quinn to fend for herself on the dangerous streets of Gotham.  Still cavorting about like the untouchable criminal princess she used to be, Quinn quickly gets herself in trouble, in the crosshairs of another crime boss, Roman Sionis (McGregor).  Having been a thorn in his side with the Joker, Quinn is forced to help Roman recover a diamond containing the secrets to a fortune.  Others become entangled in the plot, which soon focuses the attention of the city's criminals on a young girl who has found the diamond.  With her own life on the line, Quinn is forced to choose a path in her post-Joker world.

Birds of Prey has a large, female-dominated cast that offers a diverse array of personalities.  Margot Robbie reprises her role as Harley Quinn (introduced in 2016's Suicide Squad), and she's even better this time as the lead.  It's truly her movie, the zany, energetic style reflecting Quinn herself.  Robbie seems to fully embrace the role, ostensibly a villain, who is portrayed more as mischievous, even misunderstood, than as truly bad.  Robbie seems to revel in Quinn's stylistic flair, from her hair, makeup and wardrobe variety, to her choice of weapons (from baseball bat to dynamite).  But peel back the surreal surface details and Quinn can also be recognized as a wayward millenial; Robbie makes her character believable both as a drunk partier or lonely apartment homebody.  Whatever she's doing, Robbie's Quinn is almost always the most interesting thing on screen.  Her fellow "birds of prey" are also interesting - good variety among the three, though unevenly developed.  Smollett-Bell's Dinah Lance is best as a side employee of Roman who struggles with whether and how to get involved in the evil she sees; Rosie Perez's cop Montoya is good, too, winningly headstrong.  But other than providing a few chuckles, Winstead's Bertinelli is one character too many.  Finally, at opposite ends are McGregor's villain Roman aka "Black Mask", and young Ella Jay Basco as a pickpocket on the run.  McGregor does well, but it's a bit too similar to the Joker's psychopathic schtick; only his misogyny stands out (thematically-appropriate).  Basco proves herself one of the better child actors, easily playing well with her adult co-stars and showing nice gumption.

Birds of Prey is a nice step forward for DC's superhero films, thanks largely to Robbie and its style, but it also gets in its own way enough to keep it from top-tier status.  While it does have a baddie with a plan like all superhero films, the film refreshingly does not focus on this, and takes its time getting to it.  Instead, Harley herself - and to a lesser extent, her accidental new friendships - takes center stage, a wise choice considering both how different and interesting she is.  The style and tone matches the star intriguingly, letting Quinn begin the film with a voice over introduction that mixes animation and live "snapshots" (like a comic book frame) to provide both exposition and a shot of fun directly to the audience's bloodstream to prepare them.  The first half or more of the film is then presented in a jumbled chronology, perhaps as a reflection of Quinn's own warped mind.  While it does a good job of keeping you off balance, it begins to get overly confusing, particularly as the diamond plot develops.  Again, the main draw and pleasure here is in the characters themselves, and the timing tricks distract from this too much.  Still, it's fun watching Quinn even when you don't know what's going on.  Lance and Montoya fit in perfectly; when the screen shifts away from Quinn, it's good when either of these two are the reason.  It's not overtly a feminist movie, but by choosing and developing the characters it does, there are some powerful yet seamless glimpses of a modern, progressive social viewpoint within this often tradition-bound genre.  There's plenty of genre action fun to be had, too.  Quinn's invasion of a police station using non-lethal but hilarious ammunition is the high point, though there are some other creative moments later.  This all sounds great, and there is plenty to enjoy.  The quality level does ebb and flow a bit, though, and the initial meandering vibe - a good one, not rushing to get to the plot - gives way increasingly to a standard resolution.  I may be asking too much from a film with an eye on mass audience, box office pressures.  But it still delivers more than you'd think.

***

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is a good start to the year for the superhero genre, a year that looks to feature quite a few similarly female-driven titles.  Quinn has received a mostly positive reception from critics (78% on RT); there's at least broad agreement that this is a step up from both Suicide Squad - DC's first villain-focused movie - and frankly, most of DC's recent efforts overall. Between Robbie's Quinn and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, the studio is led by its female stars right now, stars who frankly can stand toe-to-toe with Marvel's more male-driven roster.  DC's attempt to create an MCU-style interwoven universe failed completely, so it's difficult to know what the future holds for these characters.  But I hope the stars will stick around at least a little longer, and help inspire similarly strong stories and characters from others.  I recommend this for a pretty broad audience (it's not a hard R, IMO), and it's certainly a must for any fan of superhero movies.




* By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61802787