BIRDEATER. Starring: Mackenzie Fearnley, Shabana Azeez, Ben Hunter, Jack Bannister and Clementine Anderson. Directed by Jack Clark and Jim Weir. Rated MA15+. Restricted. (Strong themes and coarse language). 113 min.
This film by Clark and Weir concerns a young woman who is suddenly and unexpectedly exposed to a world of dominating Australian ‘mate-ship’. Birdeater confronts gender politics by addressing the consequences of physical, sexual, verbal and emotional violence. It is a unambiguous approach to exposing toxic male behaviour.
Newly-engaged Louie (Fearnley) brings his fiancée Irene (Azeez) to his buck’s party at an isolated bush house in rural Australia. Events go terribly wrong, and the party descends into chaos. Intimate secrets are revealed, and relationships among members of the group fracture.
Birdeater bears striking similarity to Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright (1971) which is an acknowledged masterpiece of Australian cinema. Both depict repressed male hostility that results in major personal humiliation. And, at the heart of both is a version of Australian mate-ship, where humiliation is made manifest.
This film asks pointedly why white Australian men strive for a vision of masculinity that humiliates and denigrates women, and the film challenges assumptions of acceptable male behaviour at multiple levels. It targets male attitudes and confronts complacency.
Its biting critique of Australian culture leaves viewers unsettled, but also engaged, by offering a thought-provoking picture of Australian mate-ship in beer-soaked, drug-friendly environments. The film’s violence firmly communicates the dangers of unrestrained male virility. It is replete with disturbing images and menacing situations. Crafted ambitiously, the movie builds up strong anxiety and communicates its tension with emotional impact.
This is a dark, uncompromising movie that disarms and disturbs. Surprisingly, it has a finale that unexpectedly opens the movie cognitively to a range of interpretations. Laying any unambiguous answer to its final challenge aside, this is a movie that makes it impossible to repress the dramatic force of what the film has been directed to portray.
Umbrella Entertainment
Released 18 July 2024