BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)
OUT NOW CERT MA15+ / 109 MINS
DIRECTOR Cathy Yan
CAST Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Ella Jay Basco, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor
PLOT Harley Quinn (Robbie) is pulled into the hunt for street hustler Cassandra (Basco) by gangster Roman Sionis (McGregor), along with singer Dinah (Smollett-Bell), vigilante Huntress (Winstead) and detective Renee Montoya (Perez).
AT THE BEHEST of star and producer Margot Robbie, the working title for (deep breath) was ‘Fox Force Five’. For the uninitiated, ‘Fox Force Five’ is Mia Wallace’s (Umaconcerning five female secret agents each with a distinct identity and skill — a knife thrower, a kung fu master, a demolition expert and a French girl whose “speciality was sex”. It’s a particularly apt part-time alias for Robbie’s passion project, the first big-screen outing for DC’s all-women superhero squad. Because not only shares the DNA of a girl gang who can kick your sorry ass — Cathy Yan’s film also boasts some of the subversive and rockabilly spirit of QT’s ’94 classic. It doesn’t all work, but it’s a gaudy, muddled, mostly entertaining glitter-grenade celebration of just how women can fuck shit up.
