Songbird (2020)

Songbird review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Songbird is without question the worst film to debut at the worst time. The film takes place in a dystopian future of 2024 where the Coronavirus continues to mutate and keep the world in perpetual lockdown. The label of “too soon” doesn’t even begin to describe how misguided this film approaches its subject matter. It was a film that was clearly made by some misguided person who thought “hey, lockdowns would make for a cool dystopian thriller.” But the messaging of such a picture is so grotesque in what it implies that I’m kinda surprised it was produced by Michael Bay and not Dinesh D’Souza.

To be clear, I’m not at all condemning Songbird on the singular basis that it takes place during a Coronavirus pandemic to appear topical. 2020 has shown plenty of films and television to focus on this topic, ranging from documentaries to television dramas. While not all of this media has been entertaining, it has at least had the benefit of being sympathetic and informative without stoking any fires. Songbird does not fit this criterion at all, bordering on the level of propaganda that would make the likes of Red Dawn blush.

It may not have been implied but the whole idea behind Songbird is meant to raise fears not in questioning the pandemic itself but the lockdowns of such a catastrophic event. Taking place during the fourth year of lockdowns, Covid-23 has forced quarantine camps in the Q-Zone that are essentially concentration camps where patients infected with the virus are held and slaughtered by the government to keep down the disease. This aspect alone should raise some immediate red flags about what’s implied by this picture. And before you think I’m looking too much into this narrative, consider the following: How do you think a QAnon or far-right activist who won’t abide by safety regulations for the virus will look at this film? Do you think they’ll regard it as just a relatable thriller or ammo for protesting further that the Coronavirus is blown out of proportion and shouldn’t be taken seriously?

This isn’t just the setting that brews this conspiracy theory but how the story is told as well. We follow one woman who lives in an apartment block who desperately misses her lover that she can only communicate online. Her block finds the government going door-to-door trying to find the infected. When one infected woman begs for help, the woman in the apartment lets her in and gives her sanctuary. But when it becomes obvious she has been infected as well, the government comes knocking and they are not leaving.

The film is not the least bit ambiguous about what it is trying to say in this picture. The government and medical staff trying to deal with the pandemic are 100% showcased here as the bad guys. They’re not just bitterly trying to do their job to keep everyone safe; they’re getting an almost sexual thrill out of harassing people and playing the role of quarantine Gestapo. The only hope for survival from such a situation is if you have an immunity bracelet to avoid having your temperature taken and being recognized as someone who has to go off to a concentration camp.

Okay, so there’s some obvious bad messaging here about how Coronavirus is perceived, but what about the film on a technical level? I’m sorry, but, really, who cares? There’s only one type of person who is going to look at the film as being great on this level and it’s those who can close their eyes and shut their ears anytime anything referencing the current pandemic is on the screen. To write a review on this level would be like trying to write a review of the Atlas Shrugged trilogy and only comment on the lighting and camera work. The idea for this film apparently started as soon as lockdowns happened in March of 2020. This script should’ve died in talks as it raced too fast to video-on-demand to be the first film of 2020 to be declared too-soon for shamelessly tapping the Covid-19 pandemic for little more than misguided thrills and problematic messaging. Yet the more I think about it, this film would be unwelcome even in 2021 or 2022, regardless of the pandemic being over or not, so maybe “too soon” is too nice for such a picture. Maybe it’ll play differently in the year 3020.