Catherine, Called Birdy
Catherine, Called Birdy is streaming on Amazon Prime at the time of writing. Rated PG-13. Common Sense says 12.
STORY: B
Catherine, Called Birdy is based on the book of the same name by Karen Cushman. 14 year old Birdy grows up in medieval England and navigates her way through life while fending off the many potential suitors her father has in mind.
I found myself wanting all of the dots to connect. I clamored for cause and effect because that’s how stories roll. But life rarely unravels that way - especially teenagers’ lives. There is cause and effect in Birdy’s saga, but the movie’s construction is way closer to the episodic end of the story structure spectrum. It’s a bit messy at times. It forces us to connect the dots ourselves. In other words, it’s built the same way most teenagers live their lives and well suited to meet its intended audience on its own terms.
PEOPLE: A-
Hellooooo, Bella Ransey (Lyanna Mormont of Game of Thrones). This is Ramsey’s first starring role, and she nails it. She’s a boulder: stubborn and immovable. She’s a bull: pounding her own path through the world. She’s also a bird: as fragile and tiny and majestic and beautiful as anybody else. It’s a lot of stuff to carry in one role, and she soars.
You may know Andrew Scott as Professor/Jim Moriarity from Sherlock. This man needs to be in every movie and tv show. Immediately. There is no movie or show that wouldn’t instantly be made 1,879% better by putting him in it. I’m starting a petition right now.
FILM GEEK STUFF: C+
The soundtrack largely consists of updated versions of older pop songs. I’m not sure I like all of them. But I think it’s neat that a movie that feels like an updated version of an older movie uses updated versions of old pop songs. Pretty slick move there, executive music supervisor Matt Allchin.
Some of the camerawork really shines. The lighting in the opening mud fight literally provides the scene (and the whole movie) with its light tone. The hallway to hallway shot of sneaking Birdy into the abbey is gorgeous.
FREEDOM: A-
I thought about a lot of other films while watching this movie. One is 1995’s Braveheart. I picture blue-faced Birdy riding a horse in front of a bunch of teenage girls screaming, “Freedom!” as they prepare to battle enormous armies of repugnant arranged marriages.
Mostly I thought about 2017’s Lady Bird. Lady Bird, that orange haired wristband laden girl who gave herself her nickname, spends the entirety of her movie battling a mother trying to railroad society’s expectations down her throat. Born hundreds of years earlier, Birdy can relate. There’s a reason they’re both drawn to the nickname. If birds don’t like the situation they’re in, they can fly away. Unless they’re in a cage. Whether it’s to the battlefields of The Crusades or it’s to an East coast college, both girls hunger to break the bars of society’s cages and fly far away to a better life.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Lena Dunham has adapted and directed a winning film about a woman’s place in our world. Sure it’s set in medieval times, but it’s meant to get the audience thinking of the ways the female experience was different back then and of the ways it’s still the same now. That audience is teenage girls. This old dude enjoyed the film, but its lasting power will come from 1.) everything it gets today’s young women thinking about and 2.) the way they use those thoughts to create a world they deserve … not a world that’s thrust upon them.