Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
Okay, so this movie is not for the feint of heart. Nor is it for children, despite the fact that there is a child in the film. The swearing is abundant, even in the soundtrack, the violence is gratuitous and unapologetic, and the morals are… almost nowhere to be seen, if I’m honest. This is my new favourite movie.
There are so many incredible things to say about this film that I genuinely don’t know where to start. If you’ve seen Suicide Squad, well then you know exactly was this film isn’t. Harley Quinn (and Margot Robbie) as a presence in that film could hardly be described as a character. She is there – and we should be used to this by now but we can’t afford to be – for her sex appeal. She is barely wearing clothes, her makeup and hair are insanely impractical for the kind of fighting she’s supposed to be doing, and her relationship with Joker, which is romanticised, is abusive, horrifying and honestly kind of hard to watch.
Harley and the Joker break up off screen in this film, or more accurately, during the animated opening summary of the events between the two films. Some have complained that this sequence comes across as ‘telling, not showing’, which is a blunder you’re not supposed to make in the writing world. But actually, they are showing and telling. Not only that, but they’re leaving the really important ‘showing’ for the important parts of the movie. Joker is barely an afterthought in this movie, and that’s how it should be. Because Harley is coming into her own in a big way in this movie.
The story is told out of order, and I’m finding it hard to discuss everything I have to say about the film in the order in which they happen, in the film or how the chronological timeline is supposed to go. This movie just has too many high points.
There are so many moments where Ewan McGregor’s villain throws misogynistic insults at these women, things like ‘little bitches’ and ‘little girls’, constantly demeaning them and reducing them to their femininity, something I guess he thinks is a bad thing? But the thing is that, while not all of these women are feminine, the ones who are use their femininity in their fighting style. No, they don’t try to seduce anyone or distract with big boobs or anything (unlike Suicide Squad, where it seems this is all Harley is doing most of the movie), they just use the way their bodies move to kick ass.
Harley is the best example of this. Her fight scenes look like elaborate dances, and not because they are badly choreographed or acted. They look that way because a lot of what she’s doing is dancing. Falling into one person’s arms before pulling them off balance and over her body, sliding underneath someone else to then push them out of the way by spreading her legs in some weird floor work. Even the bat tricks (the bat tricks) and the roller skating are sort of beautiful like a dance.
Trigger warning: violence
And speaking of femininity, so many of the costumes in this movie are so incredible, while also being feminine and, gasp, not impractical or uncomfortable. They’re ‘sexy and bulletproof’, as Harley points out. Harley has a truly incredible gold jumpsuit, a tee-shirt that says her name all over it, turquoise and hot pink roller skates, two incredible pairs of white heeled boots that I believe she could actually fight in, socks covered in multi-coloured sequins, and my personal favourite, a plastic jacket with what looks like shreds of caution tape and cellophane for tasselly sleeves. Oh, and I now need to get myself a cute hot pink velour crop top and suspenders, to wear always everywhere I go no matter what.
Not all of the characters are particularly feminine though. The police officer certainly wears very androgynous clothes and doesn’t seem to worry too much about hair or makeup or looking glamorous. The young girl spends her time in shorts and an oversized hoodie for the whole film. The Huntress, or the Crossbow Killer or whatever you want to call her, wears relatively traditional combat clothes: practical pants and boots, a sturdy rain jacket. She spices the look up with a solid crop top with a bit of a holographic thing going on from certain angles. It’s so nice seeing female characters wearing so many different kinds of clothes.
Part of what I love so much about this story is that, at the beginning, Harley doesn’t know what to do or where to go. She’s alone and feels aimless without the Joker to tell her what to do. She keeps asking who she is without someone else. And by the end, she does find someone else. She finds several someone elses, not to tell her what to do, but to be her friends and work with her. She finds purpose and direction without the Joker. It’s so satisfying after the disappointment that was Suicide Squad and Jared Leto’s Joker.
Honestly, I love this movie and I think I’m going to watch it again (for a third time), soon. There’s so much more that I haven’t said and can’t figure out how to say, but check out Cold Crash Picture’s video below for a more thorough and well thought out review of this film. It’s just the best movie.
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is available to stream in Australia on Netflix, HBO and HBO Max in the US, Sky Go and Now TV in the UK, and is available to rent or buy everywhere on YouTube, Google Play, Amazon Prime or Apple TV.
