The joyfully bloody war of the sexes – review of “Harley Quinn: Birds of the Night”

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Let’s make an agreement: breakups are not pleasant. They hurt, sadden, break the daily rhythm. You can guess that these feelings will be much more intense if your other half was an influential figure who kept the entire criminal underworld of a huge metropolis in check. Then one of the more serious consequences of ending the relationship is the loss of immunity, which used to protect you from the unpleasant consequences of your antics. And a certain Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has managed to plunder herself … It is not surprising then that when the news of her triumphant return to the “free market” spreads around the city, from the recesses of Gotham City everyone who has had an innocent Harlequin getting under their skin crawls out. Among them is Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), an eccentric rich man with a skinning fetish. A priceless diamond turns out to be a way out of the stalemate for a woman, stolen by a girl with extremely sticky hands. This seemingly trivial task (insert any joke about taking the child’s lollipop here) unexpectedly becomes complicated.

… So I take matters into my own hands

Harley Quinn itself needs no introduction to anyone who has had even a cursory contact with DC’s stories. Those who, for some reason, have not met the princess of chaos, will be told about themselves by the interested woman. The film opens with an animated sequence summarizing the main protagonist’s actions so far. However, this is not the end – Quinn boldly grabs the reins and she will be our guide through the chaotic, brutal Gotham City. Thanks to this, the problem of the exhibition is solved, which – for obvious reasons – had to be included here a lot. At the same time, it is a non-linear and disordered trip – the incredible narrator jumps between threads, anecdotally telling about the faces that appear on the screen, their motivations and connections. It’s just as clever

There is another imp hiding here – the protagonist spreads her attention unevenly. While Sionis / Black Mask and detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) are quite solidly presented, we learn disproportionately less about the mysterious Huntress (Mary Elisabeth Winstead) or the Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), whose story seems to echo in almost only understatements. It’s a pity.

Raz kijem, raz młotem

At the same time, the story itself is simple, definitely pretext and leads from one massacre to another murder, which in itself is not a problem – after all, both the choreography of the fight scenes and the photos of Matthew Libatique are extremely pleasing to the eye (many shots would be perfect as full-page frames or spreads of a comic). Margot Robbie herself (who is also the producer of the film) clearly has a lot of fun hitting the head of the patriarchy with a hammer and a baseball bat on toxic manhood. The authors themselves – director Cathy Yan and screenwriter Christina Hodson – have the ambition to stand out above ordinary entertainment cinema. It is impossible to deny the ladies good intentions, but this is too rough a message to be taken as a serious voice in the discussion.

Following this interpretative path, it also becomes clear why we do not experience a single fully positively delineated male figure (Bruce, Harley’s pet, does not count). Exaggerated, thoughtless, bloodthirsty, caricaturally stupid – these are the guys through the eyes of the heartbreaking narrator. It is not a balanced vision, but wouldn’t Harleen Quinzel be the last person we should expect it to be?

Shameless baby on top!

For years, DC movies have been associated with sad, statuesque heroes with an unwavering moral compass, holding the weight of the entire universe on their shoulders. Birds of the night break this trend, and the brazen, painfully honest and hellishly charismatic Harley Quinn may turn out to be a cure for many problems of the universe still looking for its voice. In the film, we do not experience Snyder’s pathos or the chewed up to the limit motive of saving humanity from another extermination. It is also not, Thor’s weapon, nothing outstanding – just, not too complicated, absurd, a bit crazy, but quite refreshing story. And yet, turning a blind eye to a few nonsense, I had a lot of fun with it.

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