Jurnee Smollet-Bell attends world premiere of “Birds Of Prey” (Photo by Tim P. Whitby).
Who Run The World? Girls!
In Beyoncé’s classic song “Run the World,” the pop icon asked a simple question.
Who run the world?
To that she said, “Girls, we run this mutha, yeah.”
While the girls in “Birds of Prey” do not run the entire world yet, they surely run Gotham City.
Therefore, “Birds of Prey” represents girl power in full effect and shows a plethora of women kicking tail and taking names in the process.
Men and women will relate to Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, “Bombshell”) in “Birds of Prey.”
Who has not made a complete and utter “donkey” out of himself or herself in a relationship?
For those not in the know, what is another word for donkey?
Although Harley grew up rough, orphaned at a young age, she makes a successful life for herself, even getting a doctorate degree and becoming a psychiatrist.
But when The Joker comes into the picture, Harley loses her gosh darn mind and throws it all away, committing insane crimes because she knows that she can get away with murder being The Joker’s old lady.
However, when The Joker drops her like a bad habit, ending the relationship for good, Harley loses her way, which may lead to her losing her freedom or even losing her life.
She begins drinking way too much.
She begins assaulting the wrong people.
And she begins blowing up her own life.
And she begins blowing up the lives of women that she does not even know.
In “Birds of Prey,” Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez, “The Dead Don’t Die”) lives a straight and narrow life as a police detective for Gotham City Police Department.
But as a woman in the workforce, she gets passed up for promotions at jobs because she is a woman.
Furthermore, when Renee solves a crime, her male counterparts often get the credit for the investigation.
However, when a few major players in Gotham City find themselves executed, her expertise at crime solving comes in handy despite the pushback from her superiors at Gotham City Police Department.
When an explosion occurs at a chemical plant that Harley and The Joker frequented, Renee has an idea of who caused that explosion.
And when an extremely expensive diamond comes up missing in Gotham City, Renee has her sources that can help her locate it before it gets into the hands of the wrong people.
In “Birds of Prey,” Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell, “Hands of Stone”) is another person, like Harley, who has attempted to overcome a rough life.
She works for Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) singing in his restaurant.
Roman even nicknames Dinah the “Black Canary” for her vocal prowess.
But despite the fact that Dinah can sing like an angel, she must be singing in Hell because no one at the restaurant truly sees her or appreciates her vocal abilities.
However, when Roman finds out that she can throw them hands (aka fight) as well, he promotes her to be his driver.
In “Birds of Prey,” Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is new on the scene in Gotham City.
But her rage and anger issues soon make her well known to law enforcement officials and the mobsters of Gotham City.
And in “Birds of Prey,” Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) might be the runt of the litter, but her criminal talents are by no means little.
All of the aforementioned ladies and girl are nothing to mess with.
They can do some serious butt kicking.
But in “Birds of Prey,” can the group of ladies come together to fight a common enemy, even if the enemy outnumbers them with his goons and all the goons come from the opposite sex?
If girls truly run the world, they have to start with running Gotham City in “Birds of Prey.”
The latest DC Comics movie “Birds of Prey” has a plethora of things going for it.
It has the ever-versatile talents of Robbie who has enough charisma, personality and dramatic chops to pull off just about any possible movie role that comes her way.
Furthermore, screenwriter Christina Hodson (“Bumblebee”) does a remarkable job writing the clever dialogue in “Birds of Prey.”
While Marvel has mastered the typical superhero movie, DC has excelled at the darker, anti-hero type movies like “Joker” and “Birds of Prey.”
While some critics believe that “Joker” is too dark and too violent, Hodson does an exquisite job of inputting some off-color and raunchy jokes in “Birds of Prey.”
When Renee has to change clothes at the Gotham City precinct because her clothes got soiled, she has to find a shirt in the lost and found, that reads something to the effect of “I Shaved My **** For This?”
For several scenes, Renee has to wear that explicit shirt, meant for a man, which will amuse moviegoers every time that character appears on screen in “Birds of Prey.”
Additionally, for some weird reason, Harley Quinn owns a hyena as a pet, instead of a dog like most sane individuals.
While the hyena has a habit of decapitating men, Harley’s hyena Bruce takes a liking to her, obviously, as well as Cassandra Cain.
Maybe Bruce has bought into the reality of girl power too.
Although the comedy angle of “Birds of Prey” is great, that is not the biggest moral to the story.
The moral of the story is that a film helmed by mostly women can kick the behind of men in the same situation.
“Birds of Prey” even boasts a female director in Cathy Yan.
Girls run “Birds of Prey.”
And like Beyoncé said, they run the world too.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
