“Birdeater” - Film Review
For many, Greta Gerwig’s take on Barbie was revolutionary. Not just for what it had to say about how the patriarchy affects women, but for its thoughtful look at the way social expectations surrounding masculinity also negatively impact men. Jack Clark and Jim Weir’s Birdeater is a far, far cry from Barbie. The pastel colors of Barbieland are traded for the rugged, barren land of the Australian outback. Where Barbie was often dreamy, Birdeater is a full-blown nightmare. What the two films have in common is the urgency with which they address toxic masculinity’s vicious and violent repercussions for us all.
At the beginning of Birdeater, the relationship between Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) and Irene (Shabana Azeez) looks picture-perfect. They meet at a party and their presence in each other’s lives slowly begins to grow. Soon, Louie and Irene reach the natural culmination of a relationship that is going well: engagement. Pre-wedding jitters have hit the couple and, in an effort to ease some of their worries, Louie invites Irene to join him at his bachelor party. Louie has invited longtime friends Dylan (Ben Hunter) and Charlie (Jack Bannister) to celebrate his big day with a night of debauchery in the Australian outback. Irene won’t be the only woman at the traditionally all-male party. Charlie’s girlfriend, Grace (Clementine Anderson), is also along for the ride. What starts as a regular night of indulgence turns into something else entirely; much more feral than anyone could have imagined.
Dark Sky Films
There should be an official genre of film that boils down to having a bad time at the movie theater. Not in the sense that the film is subpar or worse, but that the movie creates such an unnerving atmosphere that it is physically uncomfortable for the viewers. Birdeater is a shining example of the sort of movie that crawls its way under the skin of the audience. It is frantic, frenetic, chaos born out of three friends who don’t know how to talk to each other. Louie, Dylan, and Charlie clearly have fun with each other, but they’re at a complete loss as to how to truly connect. They know each other’s buttons and revel in seeing how they can make the others squirm. Dylan, especially, enjoys being a puppet master of sorts. He can pretend that there was no ill intent by claiming he was just making a joke.
Much of Birdeater’s critique on masculinity is focused on a takedown of the belief that “boys will be boys.” That a certain level of violence and cruelty must be accepted when interacting with boys and men. “It’s just a joke” is often the explanation given to explain rude outbursts, and it’s a phrase that’s repeated ad nauseum in Birdeater. A deep-seated animosity exists between the men who hide behind their cruel jokes in order to feel better about themselves. They can pass judgment, but god forbid judgment is passed on them.
Dark Sky Films
The film starts out centered on the relationship between Louie and Irene, but Birdeater’s gnarly, nasty core is the toxic way these friends talk to each other and the way that spreads to their romantic relationships. Irene and Grace aren’t the focus of the film, and in other movies it would seem as though they were getting the short end of the stick. More of the runtime could have been spent to flesh out these young women, and there is a scene late in the film featuring a fully naked woman that serves no narrative purpose, but Birdeater is a psychological nightmare about masculinity’s destructive effect on everything it touches. Most intimately, about how it changes the lives of the young men who haven’t reckoned with where their desire to be seen as macho comes from.
Birdeater, like its setting, is lonely. Above all else, the film wants to beat the audience over the head about the plague that is toxic masculinity. It’s a story that’s been told before, but one that is executed in such a thrilling, white-knuckle way that Birdeater sets itself apart from the crowd of similarly-themed films.
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