Bird Eater is a celebration of indie film-making and craft. Centred around a bucks-night gone wrong, Birdeater's relentless pace and inspired editing draw you into the drug-addled headspin of a weekend and leaves you shaken.
The magic for me was in its humour, riding the line between comedy and biting social critique with finesse. The film tackles difficult subject matter and does a great job satirising traditional masculine attitudes. It's as funny as it is deeply upsetting and uncomfortable.
I'd be hard pressed to find a film where I found the editing so tight and creative. To have even one or two shots or transitions that you haven't seen before in a film is rare - but this film is FULL of them. The attention to detail is mind blowing and such a credit to the directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir for rewarding an attentive audience. I can already see the TikToks being made from this film sitting in the pantheon of the "hardest transitions in film" category.
It's a very difficult film to place because it crosses between genres fluidly - it's a credit to the film and lends it a unique tone that I haven't experienced in a cinema before. In less deft hands one might even call it confused - but in the very delicate handling of its directors, cinematography, cast and editor you're left very much thinking that you've never quite seen a movie like this before. And what a joy that feeling is.
There is so much love in the craft that it's hard to single out any one department without this review turning into a book. But I should mention the cinematography is truly such a treat. The look of Australian cinema has become recursive and self-referential over the years - clean, lovely images but lacking in grit, lacking in what made Australian cinema its own genre to begin with. Birdeater is not that movie. It's images are rich in detail, the blocking is inspired and invisible in the best way and the framing is intentional and painterly. No wasted frames.
Birdeater is a tour-de-force of indie craft and I wish it's film makers all the success in the world.
If A24 pick up an Aussie flick this year - I hope it's this one.
The magic for me was in its humour, riding the line between comedy and biting social critique with finesse. The film tackles difficult subject matter and does a great job satirising traditional masculine attitudes. It's as funny as it is deeply upsetting and uncomfortable.
I'd be hard pressed to find a film where I found the editing so tight and creative. To have even one or two shots or transitions that you haven't seen before in a film is rare - but this film is FULL of them. The attention to detail is mind blowing and such a credit to the directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir for rewarding an attentive audience. I can already see the TikToks being made from this film sitting in the pantheon of the "hardest transitions in film" category.
It's a very difficult film to place because it crosses between genres fluidly - it's a credit to the film and lends it a unique tone that I haven't experienced in a cinema before. In less deft hands one might even call it confused - but in the very delicate handling of its directors, cinematography, cast and editor you're left very much thinking that you've never quite seen a movie like this before. And what a joy that feeling is.
There is so much love in the craft that it's hard to single out any one department without this review turning into a book. But I should mention the cinematography is truly such a treat. The look of Australian cinema has become recursive and self-referential over the years - clean, lovely images but lacking in grit, lacking in what made Australian cinema its own genre to begin with. Birdeater is not that movie. It's images are rich in detail, the blocking is inspired and invisible in the best way and the framing is intentional and painterly. No wasted frames.
Birdeater is a tour-de-force of indie craft and I wish it's film makers all the success in the world.
If A24 pick up an Aussie flick this year - I hope it's this one.