#Silverio

[punishedsaints]

[carzenriq]

Silvério // Verão 2024

#SPFW - São Paulo Fashion Week n55

[acidcalavera]

[jyrgenin]

[critical-chris]

Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

I watched this Netflix movie so you did not have to, and you're welcome.

I am a big fan of Alejandro G. Iñárritu, despite only seeing about half of his films so far. I have on my docket to watch Biutiful and Babel, but absolutely loved Birdman of (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and The Revenant and his directorial style of long panning shots and perfectly choreographed scenes.

I am not a big fan of Netflix, despite being an early proponent for their DVDs by mail and igniting the streaming boom. The last few years has been painful spending month after month searching the depths of Netflix for anything worth watching, and the major hits we became so accustomed to early on seem scarcer and scarcer.

It was a total surprise when I saw this movie on the 'Just Added' tab of the home screen one day, as I had no clue Iñárritu had a film upcoming whatsoever, not to mention going straight to Netflix. It dampened my expectations that this came out of nowhere, especially considering that I cannot think of many examples of a renowned director doing great work that skips theaters (Martin Scorsese and Noah Baumbach the exceptions.) Nevertheless, I saw down for this 2 HOUR AND 39 MINUTE stretch.

Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is the 2022 follow-up to Iñárritu's award-winning 2015 film The Revenant, and is what seems to be an exaggerated and self-reflective biography of sorts, but more of a visual representation of his inner conflict with fame, Mexican vs. American nationality, family, and aging.

That being said, I'm not going to spend this entire blog post breaking down each metaphor and trying to decipher the scenes haphazardly slapped next to each other. If that's what you're looking for, might I recommend reading a New York Times review of the movie? One with enormous words and descriptive praises of the blaaaaah blah blah. As mentioned on my website, I'm not a film critic and I'm not going to dissect a movie to that degree. I'm a regular moviegoer and am speaking from that viewpoint.

The movie follows renowned documentary filmmaker Silverio, portrayed well by Daniel Giménez Cacho, who navigates instances in his life that blur the line between reality and metaphoric representation. There's a thin through-line plot of his upcoming documentary being released and his traveling to America to receive an award for his work. However, for me, it felt like most of the movie was just self-contained scene after self-contained scene pasted together.

To set the tone for the rest of this post, I really disliked this movie. People in Hollywood make the joke referring to some directors' careers as 'doing one for them, and one for you' as a reference to making a profitable film for the studio and audience and making a personal film that appeals to their own interests. This is blatantly a movie Iñárritu made for himself.

I find that most present in the title itself. The definition of Bardo is "an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state between death and rebirth", which actually makes the film a little more clear after you research the term. That is, in my opinion, a failure of this film. I think anytime you have to do research outside of a move to understand the plot indicates the filmmaker has not done their job for the audience. Sure, you may be able to pick it up if you went to film school and study the themes in movies, but the average person is just watching the movie and trying to gauge its plot and emotion by what is provided.

The jumping from absurd scene to absurd scene also made it difficult for me to empathize, sympathize, or understand the plight of Silverio. He is portrayed well by the lead actor with charisma, indignation, regret, and a range of other emotions, but he's also enough of a prick that I wasn't rooting for him. It's also difficult to relate to him when you're always trying to figure out what's actually happening, what's in his head, and what's a metaphor for what happened in his life previously.

The more I think about it, fuck this movie. I get all the good points it makes, like pointing out the cleansing of history in modern depictions of war and international relations, inner struggle of retaining your heritage and adopting a new home, the two faces of Hollywood praising and ridiculing you at the same time, et cetera. Cool, but it's such a slow burn of scenes you don't care about, you feel every minute of the runtime, and when the credits roll I felt a relief that I didn't have to endure any more. Let's get on to the specific scenes I really disliked-

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Okay, let's talk about the baby.

After a quick shot of a shadow of a man jumping extremely high in the air in the desert, we are taken to a hospital room where a woman is giving birth. The baby comes out, the doctors clean it up, and then they advise the mother that the baby actually doesn't want to stay born because the world is too shitty. No arguments there, baby. The doctor then... *ahem*... shoves the baby back inside the woman, squishing noises and all. WHY would you make us watch that? If this was a horror movie, I'd get you going for that kind of odd and slightly shocking moment, but this is a surrealist drama. I don't want to see that, but the baby gag doesn't end there.

Later in the film, Silverio is going down on his wife, and the baby's HEAD POPS OUT OF HER IN THE MIDDLE OF IT AND THEY SHOW IT. Why?? It's so weird and creepy and is such a hard right in the movie. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Shave down those 10 minutes combined and make this a slightly more watchable film.

Okay, let's talk about the host of the television show I refuse to remember or look up. Earlier in the film, Silverio goes on a tv interview talk show that his "friend" is hosting and imagines the interview going south and being relentlessly insulted. It is then revealed none of this happened and he actually no-showed the interview. Not a big fan of when movies do that, but whatever I can get past it.

Silverio is then confronted by the tv host at his documentary premiere party, and they have a LONG conversation where the host criticizes Silverio's work (in a painfully obvious metaphor for criticizing Iñárritu's work) and Silverio criticizes the television industry. It's boring, it's too long, and oh my god I don't care about any of it.

**END SPOILERS**

Some may find the surreal scenes in this film as entertaining, but I sure did not and in no world, realm, or purgatory would recommend ANYBODY watch this movie. The only person I can imagine would is Alejandro G. Iñárritu. I look forward to his next film which, hopefully, is one for them.

Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths - 3.0/10

[modelsof-color]

Isabelle Silverio by Hadrien Raitani for Elle Kazakhstan Magazine September 2022

[falsenote]

[carnation-damnation]

Let's do things you've never done before!

[punishedsaints]

[thirst-for-boys]

[jyrgenin]

[myfloatingrock]

Alamada Bidiandé, Isabelle Silverio and Gaia Rudmyla photographed by Thais Vandanezi for Glamour Brasil October 2023

[dance-world]

Nick Silverio

[modelsof-color]

Bidiande Madah , Isabelle Silverio and Rudmyla Gaia by Thais Vandanezi for Glamour Brasil Magazine September 2023

[falsenote]

Caravaggio (1967)