By Dana Berry
A young man invites his bride-to-be to his stag party (Bucks party in Australia) and the inevitable debauchery accentuates past and present tensions.
Birdeater is an obvious homage to Wake In Fright, the depressingly chaotic 1971 Australian film. A poster of it is even displayed in one scene. Fortunately, the wild pickup truck ride in this movie doesn’t end in shooting kangaroos. Unfortunately, there is no Donald Pleasance. This is not to say the acting is bad, in fact it’s quite good, but there is no actor that stands out.
The filmmaking is impressive and shows promise for the young directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir. It is visually striking and innovative. The quick cuts and uneven pacing serve the overall tension and unease. A wonderfully all-over-the-place score accentuates and punctuates the drama. It does feel like one long ADD montage, however. This is especially true during the frustrating beginning where the quick-fire scenes do not allow us to get invested in either of the lead characters.
Does the title suggest women are birds and men are predators? The film is obviously a statement on toxic masculinity. The synopsis uses the term “feral nightmare”. Sure, these dudes give wild animals a bad name, but the filmmakers don’t instill the female characters with any real strength. They portray Irene, the lead female character played by Shabana Azeez, as a weak woman with separation anxiety who lets a dodgy guy, Louie, played by Makenzie Fearnley, control her to the point he is sedating her with pills. Her backstory doesn’t help matters and she spends most of the movie being timid and uncomfortable. The other woman, Grace, played by Clementine Anderson, is a Christian virgin who is angry and disgusted most of the film, but eventually lets her lying boyfriend, a not so virginal virgin, off the hook for his transgressions.
In a way, this film shows us as we are. Nobody is ever right and arguments die on the vine without any resolution. Relationships are not pretty. Drugs and alcohol fuel deviant and harmful behavior. But is that all we want in a film? Any hint of a plotline is not given the time and space to develop. The sordid backstories of these characters erupt in tense exchanges only to be quelled by a quick edit. Louie and Irene have a difficult past that is so haphazardly related, when the reveal happens, it’s not that dramatic. A lack of story may be by design, there is no subtlety to the filmmakers intention of ambiguity, but one wakes from this feral nightmare parched for meaning.
Birdeater screened as part of SXSW Film Festival 2024.
Birdeater is in UK cinemas 9 May and on digital platforms 26 May 2025.
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