SONGBIRD a review (Jan '21)

Remember taste and decency in films - no, nor do I. Songbird is most defiantly not a meditation on the end times like say Melancholia which at least tried to focus its ruminating on the psychological attempts us humans have when faced with something so catastrophic, like the end of the world yet still see us doing strange things like singing (remember that) and dancing (something anyone below the age of 16 hasn't had a chance to do in 20-21). And of course tie up loose ends, so we can try and make sense of it all. Did Sarah sleep with my best mate at school? You know, important stuff.

Moreover I believe that Lars Von Trier attempts altered perception when film making, it's art house meditation and that's being charitable. So for a LVT film to pop into my mind as I watched Songbird yesterday is interesting to me since the Amazon produced action flick really doesn't try to be intellectual at all. If a LVT production has the hint of pretentious about it then Songbird can't even try that one as it's given out as a parallel action flick that's self important, shameless, it's blatant fearporn and that's why I hate it.

SONGBIRD is the worse kind of fearmongering and dooms day welcoming I have ever seen. And to make matters worse it's based on reality, I mean reality like what is going on right outside our windows. This film does not try to tell us that everything is going to be okay. No. It imagines a world in the near future. The very near future. Remember Minority Report and their 50 year window, director and actor alike sitting in front of a camera talking about driverless cars and identity tags and retina reading cameras that can take vital signs. They said in 50 years... But it's normality in 2021 over thirty years early as Minority Report was made in 2004. SONGTURD was made in 2020. Yep they actually went out on the streets in 2020 and made a film about life in 2023. They must have been socially distant, wearing masks doing all the crap we are told to do, weren't they? Us plebs will never know. But I got to ask myself did no one on set say something like 'excuse me Mr director sir, don't you think making this film might have a detrimental effect on a persons wellbeing, you know mental health?' Or were they too happy with being in the movies. You know Hollywood. And the writers what the hell were they doing, it's almost like they were told what to write...

There's some wonderful nuggets of near future truth thrown in their that are too brilliant not to mention:

1.Face recognition software on phones that can take temperature. I think that's here already just not rolled out to every corner of the Earth as yet.

1. Wellness passes, bio security passes, I.D passes in the form of a wrist band that is worn at all times. That's coming, they've told us.

2. Massive concentration camps to house the unwell. Huge areas of any given city walled off. There's been talk of this from China to New Zealand to America to Europe and back again.

3. Empty streets in empty cities. Well, just look out your window. In Songbird there's a huge billboard showing the daily death count and that's over 8million.Fun times ahead.

4. Upside down allocation of duties awarded not on merit but on survival. Our antagonist works for the 'sanitation' department and found his way to the top job through the death of others due to the virus. Echo's of the Third Reich there.

5. New 'variants' or 'strains' of the virus. This is amazing to me because it's happening where I live in my country, there's a new strain and it's worse than the last strain.

6. Black market for all things health related.

7. The new abnormal where people do not come in to contact with each other at all and everything is sanitised. The only people out in the fresh air are delivery staff and drones. 2030 anyone?

8. It was made by Amazon. Enough said.

9. Demi Moore.

There are others but that's what I can think of off the top of my head this morning. It's a truly awful film with its sole intention to frighten and scare but not in a Shawn of the Dead way nor does it meditate on the dilemma facing the human race in the time of technocracy. NO. It's full on in love with itself and enjoys the idea of the fall [of humanity] in a sinister, I told you so, this is going to happen sort of way.