‘Birdeater’ review: Not your average bachelor party

No one dies in Birdeater, except the characters’ efforts to put up a happy front and the audience’s investment in the story.

Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) and Irene (Shabana Azeez) have a bachelor party with their mates’ mates. The boys night out includes enjoying a house and bucolic grounds along Australia’s Macdonald River, dining al fresco, galavanting around a fire pit, and off-roading while drinking and ingesting drugs. Some uncomfortable truths emerge, which requires the couples to face themselves and the state of their relationships. Will there be consequences or will everything return to normal?

Friends, lovers, or nothing.

Co-writers and co-directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir (in their feature film debut) paint Irene and Louie as the happy couple at home and plant the seeds that something is off. Irene seems to be so enamored with Louie that she has no life outside of him, but less enthused about planning the wedding. Louie lies to Irene about where he’s going at night. Louie decides that a weekend celebrating their impending nuptials at his bachelor party with his friends is the perfect way to unwind from the stress of organizing a big event. 

When the partygoers enter the frame, you’ll find yourself wondering why these people even like each other. Charlie (Jack Bannister) brings his fiancé, Grace (Clementine Anderson), to keep Irene company, but also instructs her not to ask too many questions. Dylan (Ben Hunter) is a complete wild card who enjoys playing mind games and being brash. He can’t stand anyone new to the group (including Irene), missed pivotal events that everyone else knows about that led to the engagement, and bears the brunt of Louie’s verbal abuse. The relationship between Dylan and Louie and Dylan and Charlie seems to have an unfulfilled homoerotic context. Murph (Alfie Gledhill) only knows Louie but as the libations kick in, the inner circle of guys accepts him more. Louie invites Sam (Harley Wilson) for Irene but is clearly jealous of him, and Grace is nakedly hostile to him. 

It’s hard to be the new guy (or gal) finding a way into the dynamic of old friends. Movies about bachelor or bachelorette parties usually turn into films about someone ending up dead. It’s not exactly a newsflash that bad things happen when fellas have some fun (especially with drugs and alcohol). Marriage is a civilizing force, and future wives cannot be present to witness their devolution and debauchery. When everyone gets together, a game called Squealies will unintentionally trigger associations with Deliverance. The guys’ revelry feels as if it could end in some Lord of the Flies climax, but also no. Birdeater is a film that prefers keeping a frenetic pace, but the story does not keep up with the tension. 

Lost in translation.

For those unfamiliar with the vibes of other Aussie movies, the film’s charm is elusive.  If Birdeater was advertised as a dramedy about 20-somethings trying to reconcile their desires and shame with their romantic relationships, moviegoers could go with the flow instead of constantly waiting for a shoe to drop when there isn’t one. The atmosphere is built to such a crescendo that the story fails to match, leading to an anticlimactic and dissatisfying conclusion. Think Blink Twice, but for men who are not affluent bros with island getaways. If it’s a horror movie, it’s The Stepford Wives with the couples working together to create a relationship utopia instead of accepting the consequences of their actions and feelings. By the end of the movie, Dylan and Sam seem like the only two people at peace with themselves. 

The filmmakers twist their characters (including the women) into pretzels to ensure that no one is bad, even as all the evidence lines up that they are awful. It feels like a movie about performing adulthood and pretending to be a good person because how can you live with yourself if you are not. They have these ideas of what life should look like, but it doesn’t feel that way. The most arresting image is the shape of a mirror, and people looking into it as if it is real. 

Grace is the one character whose words and actions are incongruous. Her brain processes repugnant information that she vociferously protests, but her curiosity gets the best of her and starts to dabble in it. On the other side of that experience, she doesn’t find a way to love her betrothed without the burden of critical thought. She distills the clarity of what she wants and seeks authentic connection with Charlie, warts and all, with the promise of no judgment. Though vague at the end, the movie suggests a peace and contentment with their inherent flaws regardless of how deep they run. It’s a nice idea, unconditional love and acceptance. While it’s likely true for some women, it’s also a strange fantasy of the loneliness epidemic that many more women would never cosign outside the confines of the screen.

The bottom line.

If you are a fan of Strange Darling, Birdeater may be the film for you. It’s visually sumptuous with its verdant vistas, psychedelic, surreal undertones, and a soundtrack that amplifies the narrative themes. The opening sequence establishes quotidian life as Irene rises into the frame eclipsing a naked woman in a field. That painting later comes to life in a surreal, dialogue-less sequence that teases a more intriguing story than the one that the filmmakers gave. Under promise, over deliver boys.

For anyone else, it’s best to avoid Birdeater which is more sizzle than steak. And that sizzle is more like a simmering pot, not a scalding hot flattop. We used to be a proper society where onscreen shenanigans used to render spectators outraged, rushing out of theaters and screaming outrage at the top of their lungs. This film wants to be that movie, but should have just put away the theatrics and forsake the sensational veneer to be the Ordinary People or The Ice Storm for people experiencing quarter-life crisis. Without the flash, there is a good story here. Sometimes viewers complain that nothing happened in a movie, but if Clark and Weir did less, the story’s theme of reconciling the outside image with the real person could strike an emotionally resonant cord without the visuals overpowering it. 

Birdeater is now playing in select theaters. You can watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment. You can read more reviews by Sarah G. Vincent here.