7/23/2023 0 Comments Birds of prey movie poison ivyIn Birds of Prey, though, things finally change: Harley and the Joker break up. In her ripped-up Daddy’s Lil Monster top, multicolored pigtails, and booty shorts, Harley was a spin on Gillian Flynn’s Cool Girl archetype but, ultimately, always an accessory to the Joker’s story. Harleen Quinzel falls in love with the Joker, her patient at Gotham’s Arkham Asylum, and starts a life of crime with him after taking a tumble into a vat of acid at Ace Chemicals. Entertainment)īirds of Prey begins after the events of David Ayer’s 2016 film Suicide Squad, in which psychiatrist Dr. This is a movie about emancipation, obviously, and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn leads a fierce ensemble cast of women who disgustedly throw up a middle finger at any man who wronged them, whether professionally or personally, before punching him right in the face. The plot of Birds of Prey is typical B-level villain stuff, an overly complicated tale about various organized crime figures fighting it out for control of Gotham, but the subtext of female rage and resentment is, well, the actual text. Director Cathy Yan’s film about the Joker’s onetime accomplice and ex-girlfriend rejects the genteel affectations of conscious uncoupling and goes all-in on intentional violence, blowing misandry a kiss with a mouth decorated in matte lipstick. And sure, Poison Ivy was a genius scientist and ecoterrorist, but her character was always bustier-forward.Īll of this is to make clear what Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn does, which is acknowledge the myriad simplified or sexualized reads of Gotham City’s women and then smash in the kneecaps of anyone who would further those paper-thin characterizations. Catwoman, whether played by Michelle Pfeiffer or Anne Hathaway, has always been skewed by the male gaze. Bruce Wayne’s mother Martha was assassinated in the street for her pearls alongside her husband Thomas, but she barely registers as an influence on Batman in either Christopher Nolan’s or Todd Phillips’s films about the Dark Knight or the Joker, respectively. DC Comics’ Gotham City has not traditionally been a kind place for women.
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