Thesubject of toxic masculinityhas been around the pop cultural block so many times in recent years that — as the topic of a film at least — it’s starting to feel a bit tired. But leave it to Australia, a country that has produced a heroic number of twisted films, to deliver a new and disturbing exploration of this oft-explored idea withBirdeater. The film is the directing debut of Jack Clark and Jim Weir, and the Aussie duo fairlydrowns us in atmosphere, pulling visual and aural cues from horror and using them to tella nerve-jangling tale of emotional abuse, gaslighting and, most importantly, cruelly manipulative and dangerously laddish male behavior.
While Clark and Weir have directorial style to spare, it’s the script, credited to just Clark, where the wheels threaten to come off.Not content to weave a straight-ahead story about the secrets and lies that turn a bachelor party into an Outback nightmare, the film persistently withholds crucial information which keeps us intriguingly off-balance but then offers clues — often in seemingly throwaway dialogue — that only partially satisfy our need for answers.
By dropping too many crumbs and pulling too many rugs,Birdeaterbecomes overlong and can be frustrating. But it still weaves a heck of a spell as it isolates an unlikable group of Aussie lads in a remote cabin that becomes a Petri dish for a certain breed of monstrous men.
‘Birdeater’ Is an Aussie Thriller with Throwbacks to the Australian New Wave
IfBirdeater’s story of near-madness in a faraway corner of Australia reminds one of the seminal 1971 thrillerWake in Fright, Clark and Weir agree.In fact, a poster for Ted Kotcheff’sAustralian New Waveclassic makes a cameo early-on inBirdeater. And yet their film is also a nightmarish riff on Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 masterpiece,The Celebration. But instead of a 60th birthday party that descends into sadness and chaos,Birdeaterturns on a bachelor party that ostensibly celebrates the love between Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) and his fiancé Irene (Shabana Azeez).
Before the party even starts, we notice there’s something off about their relationship: Irene seems to suffer from intense separation anxiety, which she treats with a sedative meant to subdue animals. And after she falls into a drug-induced slumber, Louie leaves their apartment to golf or hang with his mates.
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With his sweet and rubbery face that suggests nothing nefarious could possibly be afoot, Fearnley is well-cast, so when Louie offers to take Irene to his weekend bachelor party in the Outback, we’re momentarily tempted to think the best of it.But even in its quieter moments, Clark and Weir scold us for assuming the best in anyone. Editor Ben Anderson’s quick cuts and odd rhythms keep us on edge, while DP Roger Stonehouse’s grainy images suggest nothing good will come of this weekend. And it’s all tied together by Andreas Dominguez’s hardworking and eclectic score that pours nightmare fuel onto an already growing bonfire of anxiety.
Secrets and Lies at an Outback Bachelor Party
Louie’s bachelor party includes what he calls “our nearest and our dearest,” a vaguely anonymous bunch except for Dylan, played with wide eyes and volatile, wild card energy by a magnetic Ben Hunter. Dylan is the most dangerous of the celebrants, not only because he arrives with ketamine pills and a blow-up doll, but because his cruel dinner table toast helps open the spigot of revelations that slowly tease out — among other lies — the true nature of Louie and Irene’s relationship.
Indeed,Birdeateris not a film in search of contemporary social targets to shoot at.Not only are toxic masculinity, co-dependency, and emotional abuse depicted, so is gaslighting, which is not beneath Louie’s Christian friend Charlie (Jack Bannister), who may also be lying about his virginity to his equally devout fiancé Grace (Clementine Anderson).
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All these real and relevant issues, of course, often overlap and Clark and Weir cleverly keep us wondering which one will fully explain the scar on the side of Louie’s head, the surprise appearance of Irene’s possible ex-boyfriend, the bisexual Sam (Harley Wilson), and why Irene doesn’t have a cell phone. But the filmmakers also stack the deck too high with too many teasing questions contained in an overly wordy script with nothing larger to say about any of these concerns, even if they do deserve praise for shoehorning them all into one unnerving film.Birdeater, then, is more a triumph of filmmaking skill than a long-overdue reckoning of pernicious male behavior.
The Women of ‘Birdeater’ Are Given Short Shrift
Such a focus on the men means there’s little room to consider Irene’s plight.Both female characters here are underwritten and while one can argue that giving short shrift to Irene in favor of the men is kinda the point, she’s still given little agency other than the suggestion that she chooses to be with Louie because she needs a green card.
There’s also the business of the film’s ambiguous ending, which augers the possibility that Irene is not as helpless as she seems. Maybe it means that Clark and Weir, a promising duo whose next film should be met with much anticipation, saved their best twist for last. But given the full-tilt nature of this accomplished, if thematically wobbly drama, they did it for the same reason that men do lots of things: because it would be cool.
Birdeater, produced by Breathless Films, Fax Machine and Four Leg Films and distributed by Dark Sky Films, opens in theaters and on digital platforms January 10.
