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26 MAY 2020
Birds of Prey: Proving me wrong one glitter bomb at a time Jessica Colacci REVIEWS
leaving me feeling curious as to what would happen next. This movie wouldn’t be truly impeccable without the stellar Harley Quinn herself. We see her develop to be independent from the Joker after their fresh
I was reluctant to watch Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). My reluctance to watch this film was due to the fallout of Suicide Squad and my hunch that this film would have the same faults. Although I had my doubts, I went into the movie with an open mind and was happily surprised by my feelings toward this intense and vibrant action film. Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn was the best thing to come out of Suicide Squad. Her mannerisms, stunts, and dialogue are uncanny and I can’t see a better fit for the role. There were three aspects of Birds of Prey that stood out in particular: colour, characterization, and creativity. The colour palette in this film was incredibly tasteful and, in my opinion, it has to go down as one of the most visually pleasing DC films of all time. It was a colour trip of all sorts and left me satisfied and inspired. The colouring scheme and bright elements carried over to the pure creativity of the scenes in the film. COURTESY OF AP The fight scenes were so inventive and not drawn out to the point of boredom, like in several other comic Margot Robbie shines as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey, book movies. They were truly imaginative and de- a film which provides a refreshing departure from DC’s parted completely from overdone fight scene tropes, standard action tropes, writes Jessica Colacci.
breakup, which gives us a taste of Harley finally being a liberated entity. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but throughout the DC universe, Harley is always dependent on the Joker. With his protection and (unhealthy) affection gone from her life, we see an evolved and enlightened Harley Quinn. While it is fascinating and beautiful to see her character development, a side effect of spending so much time on Harley’s growth is the inevitable shortchanging of the rest of the Birds of Prey crew. The characters Huntress, Black Canary, Cassandra Cain, and Renee Montoya were such strong female characters alongside Harley, yet we only get a surface level view of them. If you go into the movie expecting even coverage of all the female leads, you will be disappointed—this is truly Harley Quinn’s movie. Even though the villain, Black Mask, is entertaining, his motivations aren’t truly conceptualized further than his hatred for Harley. While these characters weren’t given more time to shine, the decision not to fully dissect them could be a clever way to give us a taste of this enigma of a cast and set up more DC films for the Birds of Prey crew in the future. This riot of a film deserves a solid 7.5/10 in my opinion, and it restored my faith in DC films one colour filled, jaw-dropping glitter bomb at a time. When it comes to DC films, I feel like they always take two steps back and one step forward; Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was a leap forward in the right direction for DC.
Movies reviewed solely by their trailers Helen Ho SATIRE Trolls World Tour (dir. Walt Dohrn) RELEASE DATE: April 10th, 2020 Two words: All powerful. A strong political allegory for our current events—it’s difficult to explain how well this movie captures the pain and sorrow that we as a society are facing right now. This movie will sweep Best Picture at the Oscars without a doubt. Walt Dohrn has outdone himself. A Quiet Place II (dir. John Krasinski) RELEASE DATE: September 4th, 2020 A Quiet Place II picks up on the story of the family introduced in A Quiet Place I. Krasinski always seems to have bad luck with leaks for these movies: the trailer that was released for this movie was left incomplete, starting off with a clearly loud and audible Emily Blunt. The first movie was also leaked prematurely into theatres, featuring many points and large portions of the movie that had loud sounds. Hopefully, Krasinski will finally be able to achieve his final vision of a quiet place and win that Best Sound Mixing Oscar he so rightly deserves. Mulan (dir. Niki Caro) RELEASE DATE: July 24th, 2020 Mulan is the story of Joan of Arc, adapted for Eastern cultures, utilizing Eastern methods of storytelling with Eastern elements. The story, originally a rustic
and sacred story, has been transformed to be fun and more appealing to those who may enjoy “oriental” themes. If you know the story of Joan of Arc and enjoyed its exclusive French themes, then you may find this adaptation to be a fun jaunt. This movie is a strong contender for Best Foreign Film.
cio Del Toro? Il est toujours ici? Hé, où est Bill Murray dans tout ça? Je ne sais pas au sujet du film mais, Hourra le cinéma! Hourra Wes Anderson!
Candyman (dir. Nia DaCosta) RELEASE DATE: September 25th, 2020 Your favourite niche celebrity will tweet about how Jordan Peele has done it again, everyone will call it the Promising Young Woman (dir. Emerald Fennell) “new Jordan Peele movie.” Truly a movie that sticks with you even as you leave the theatre, hearing all RELEASE DATE: April 16th, 2020 (Author’s Note: As a woman, I felt inexperienced review- the white people around say, “maybe Candyman was ing this movie so I asked the guy who always talks in my overreacting.” AHH! Candyman will win something like Best Costumes or Best Sound Mixing, and all of philosophy tutorial for his opinion.) “I just don’t understand why this movie is necessary,” the actors will be nominated too, because that’s what Harry tells me. “Violence against men in media? It happened with Lupita Nyong’o in Us. just feels like we are moving backwards.” Harry is a fourth-year in Trinity, enjoys watching Game of No Time To Die (dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga) Thrones and his favourite movies are Deadpool 2 and RELEASE DATE: Nov 25th, 2020 The Dark Knight. He also doesn’t think this movie will I’ve been waiting for another Bond sequel for a long win any Oscars due to its blatant misunderstanding time: they’re such a rare and unique gem, and they of representation, “it’s no Green Book.” always bring something new to Oscar season. This trailer seems to reveal a new, heartfelt shift in the The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas James Bond movies, reminding me of the fragility of human life. I called my mom immediately afterwards Evening Sun (dir. Wes Anderson) RELEASE DATE: October 16th, 2020 and told her the eponymous words: there is no time L’histoire complètement invraisemblable de la façon to die, I proclaimed. She agreed with me, shortly bedont Timothée Chalamet pourrait jamais être con- fore her hospital nurse took her phone away for her fondu avec quelqu’un d’autre que Timothée Chala- next treatment. Billie Eilish will not win an Oscar met. Ses talents d’acteur brillent ici parce que pendant for Best Original Song; it would be ludicrous if two pour une minute, je pensais que c’était seulement un James Bond movies won Best Original Song. The Osautre film excentrique de Wes Anderson et, regardez! cars should be a fair game for everybody, not just the C’est notre ami Tim! Et oh mon Dieu! Est-ce Tilda young and urban! Swinton? Je ne l’ai même pas reconnue elle. Et Beni-
