Birds of Prey - Worlds of Character?
Thoughts On: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, 2020)
Quinn leaves Joker, and so it is open season.
I recently re-watched Wonder Woman, and it is through what is easily considered DC's best film to date that you can see glimmers of where the studio can go. Wonder Woman worked because it captured a character well and invited us into her perception. As a result, her world view becomes a world building tool. Birds of Prey seemed promising to me because it doubled down on this structural approach. This is a film that detaches Harley Quinn from the Joker so that her composition as a character can be explored. This exploration is left in the hands of Harley herself as an unreliable narrator of sorts. It is through this set-up and narrative approach that we are pulled into the world of Harley Quinn. Phillip's Joker - which is not necessarily a DC film - did this with stupendous success. We were pulled into a character's psyche and made to see the world as they did. Oscillating between an objective position and a subjective perspective, spectators immersed in Joker see profound meaning emanate from an attempt to understand character and the impact of their will on their world. Does Birds of Prey achieve anything comparable?
The answer to this is a yes and no. Birds of Prey falls into a character's psychology, but it trivialises its drama to a significant degree, using Quinn's mental instability and moral incredulity as a source of melodrama. Joker is a realist typhlodrama, Birds of Prey is an expressionist morodrama. The two share certain narrative techniques and both films' logic are defined by character psychology, but there are many conventional and modal differences that impact the quality of meaning that either film can potentially evoke. Joker is primed for affect; it means to rattle and shock. Birds of Prey lacks the seriousness to explicitly and directly do this. This is a film of queer pleasures; like a Scorsese gangster flick, this aims to reveal the ecstasies of immorality and move into an anti-hero's world. The results of this are appeasing but maybe a little lukewarm. The world we fall into in Birds of Prey is an amusing one, but, as you maybe expect, there is not much to learn there. We see and experience a side of Quinn that we hope to, but gain little of real substance from this. As a result, Birds of Prey is likely not as good as Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman had more heart and depth; Birds of Prey simply doesn't feel particularly substantial. It is funny and immersive, however. In total, then, this is worthwhile and has me interested in the new Wonder Woman.
Quinn leaves Joker, and so it is open season.
I recently re-watched Wonder Woman, and it is through what is easily considered DC's best film to date that you can see glimmers of where the studio can go. Wonder Woman worked because it captured a character well and invited us into her perception. As a result, her world view becomes a world building tool. Birds of Prey seemed promising to me because it doubled down on this structural approach. This is a film that detaches Harley Quinn from the Joker so that her composition as a character can be explored. This exploration is left in the hands of Harley herself as an unreliable narrator of sorts. It is through this set-up and narrative approach that we are pulled into the world of Harley Quinn. Phillip's Joker - which is not necessarily a DC film - did this with stupendous success. We were pulled into a character's psyche and made to see the world as they did. Oscillating between an objective position and a subjective perspective, spectators immersed in Joker see profound meaning emanate from an attempt to understand character and the impact of their will on their world. Does Birds of Prey achieve anything comparable?
The answer to this is a yes and no. Birds of Prey falls into a character's psychology, but it trivialises its drama to a significant degree, using Quinn's mental instability and moral incredulity as a source of melodrama. Joker is a realist typhlodrama, Birds of Prey is an expressionist morodrama. The two share certain narrative techniques and both films' logic are defined by character psychology, but there are many conventional and modal differences that impact the quality of meaning that either film can potentially evoke. Joker is primed for affect; it means to rattle and shock. Birds of Prey lacks the seriousness to explicitly and directly do this. This is a film of queer pleasures; like a Scorsese gangster flick, this aims to reveal the ecstasies of immorality and move into an anti-hero's world. The results of this are appeasing but maybe a little lukewarm. The world we fall into in Birds of Prey is an amusing one, but, as you maybe expect, there is not much to learn there. We see and experience a side of Quinn that we hope to, but gain little of real substance from this. As a result, Birds of Prey is likely not as good as Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman had more heart and depth; Birds of Prey simply doesn't feel particularly substantial. It is funny and immersive, however. In total, then, this is worthwhile and has me interested in the new Wonder Woman.
