Rating: 3.5/5
Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024 | 12/52 | 2020s
Harleen Quinzel was once a child, believe it or not. Her father put her in St. Bernadette’s, getting her out of his life. Following her college years and a few heartbreaks, she embarked on her journey as a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum. There, she met Joker and fell into a toxic vat and toxic love. She took the moniker Harley Quinn, pulling several heists and stunts for Joker, who took credit for all her work. Finally, Joker had enough of her and kicked her to the curb.
She moved into a bachelor pad above Doc’s Place Chinese Cuisine. Like many breakups, she looked for a new identity — cutting her hair, buying a pet hyena, and eating a whole tub of ice cream. You know, all the classic breakup cliches.
Once Harley makes her breakup with Joker public, her adversaries emerge seeking vengeance.
Christina Hodson’s script does the brilliant footwork of re-contextualizing Harley Quinn without ignoring the established mythos up to that point. She pulls Harley Quinn out of her codependent patterns and into an ensemble that better highlights her skills.
The stylistic flairs align with Suicide Squad but integrate more seamlessly with the movie’s aesthetic.
Margot Robbie’s role as producer made the film possible. As we’ve seen with Batgirl, DC has no qualms about throwing away movies.
The fight choreography is so tight. Every movement tells the story and locks into the soundtrack.
Robbie’s performance as Harley Quinn carries all the eccentricities that Arleen Sorkin brought to the Batman animated series while also developing a more nuanced and human character that other adaptations lacked.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead hasn’t been this cool before. Although casting the Rocky Mount native as Sicilian is an odd choice.
I’ve only seen Jurnee Smollett in this and Lovecraft Country. While that show was disappointing, her performance was outstanding in it. She’s badass in this.
Ewan McGregor is an odd choice for Roman Sionis. When Roman is in control, he emanates a carefree nonchalance — a villain unconcerned with his vile deeds. But when anything goes wrong, he throws a little boy temper tantrum.
I’m always happy to see Steven Williams, even in minor roles.
Similar to Barbie, the film maintains a diet “fuck the patriarchy” spirit that, on paper, should offend no one. The filmmakers, however, made the “mistake” of turning down the horny on Harley Quinn’s costuming, upsetting all the comic nerds who wouldn’t see a woman-led movie otherwise. Which is insane, but I digress. I imagine the backlash would have been worse had Cathy Yan had any say during the edit #releaseTheYanCut.
Dark, moody Hit Me With Your Best Shot is…
While I’m not a comic book movie person, this movie was a lot of fun. The dark humor sometimes works for me, but it teeters into edgelord shit now and again. Still, this is likely the best DC can achieve with a movie.