“Songbird” (2020) is set in 2024 during the fourth year of lockdown because of the pandemic. The story revolves around Nico (KJ Apa), a bike courier with immunity who ties all the characters together. Michael Bay was one of a list of producers, and Adam Mason wrote and directed it, but I am unfamiliar with his work.
When I saw the preview for “Songbird,”, unlike most critics who clutched their pearls in distaste at the rampant exploitive nature of the enterprise, I, as a fan of pandemic films or anything vaguely apocalyptic and dystopian, said, “Yes, please,” then added it to my enormous queue. I reserve my disapproval for systems that failed to protect people during the actual pandemic, not cynical, profit-making enterprises looking to make a quick buck. I’m always game for a good bad movie. I grade on a scale.
The head of The Department of Sanitation, Emmett Harland (Peter Stormare), is a madman who uses his pandemic powers to serve his homicidal and corrupt proclivities.
Harland endangers Sara (Sofia Carson), Nico’s love interest, which is the driving force behind the story. Sara lives with her grandma, Lita (Elpidia Carrillo), in an apartment building. His boss, Lester (Craig Robinson), gives Nico assignments alone in a vast warehouse. Lester employs Dozer (Paul Walter Hauser), who controls a drone from his apartment to fly above the city and check up on Nico. They work against him and have his back depending on the moment. Nico delivers mysterious packages to one of his affluent customers, the Griffins, who live in a gorgeous house with huge windows and even have a live-in housekeeper to tend to their needs, but they are miserable. Piper (Demi Moore), another person with immunity, is only concerned for her immunocompromised daughter, Emma (Lia McHugh), who feels guilty for trapping her mom inside. Piper only has contempt for her husband (Bradley Whitford), a former record executive. The couple’s business partnership is stronger than their marriage and plays a pivotal role in the proceedings as “Songbird” unfolds. The titular character is May (Alexandra Daddario), a singer who entertains over the internet after being lured to LA with promises of being famous, but the pandemic leaves her stuck alone in a hotel room doing private shows for her exploiter. For such an important character, the filmmakers could have cut May’s storyline out and it would not have made much of a difference except the film would be missing.
Even by my low standards, “Songbird” is only mildly entertaining. Apa is like a storebrand Jake Gyllenhaal, which is not a bad thing—most men wish that they were so lucky. His character is not that interesting, and when random nameless men step in to save him for him only to become John Wick in one scene, the choice of protagonist reflects poor judgment and plot development—real Mary Sue energy. Sara would be a better choice though we would be stuck inside. Garson has a Gal Gadot energy without the political and gender gaffes. If this movie was in the “Purge” franchise, she would be the obvious choice, and when she faces the threat, she really does not seem to need Nico. With a few revisions, she becomes a quick-thinking, underdog protagonist who is easy to root for.
If I was consulting for “Songbird,” I would revise the whole story and turn Piper into the protagonist. Moore as an anti-hero protagonist is a thrilling prospect. She is still gorgeous with a flint like hardness in her approach to everyone except her daughter, but with a warm enough voice that viewers can buy people trusting and underestimating her. When she brandishes a gun, I believed that she could shoot someone without missing a wink of sleep, and the news broadcaster announcing how she leveraged her appearance and reputation as a mother and wife to appear like an innocent bystander in a corrupt conspiracy revealed the interesting story embedded within the actual movie. All these men giving grandiose speeches and twirling their mustaches like villains are fun, but she is the ultimate mastermind who can backup her threats with no henchmen. Whitford has embraced playing horrible men, and Stomare makes a magnificent bastard, but for me, Moore steals the show as the mama who is over cleaning up after their messes and considers how much more effective she can be without them. This film could have made more money by tapping into the emerging resentment of wives who are sick of ungrateful, abusive husbands and ready for the fantasy of dispatching them in a vengeful exploitation film. What a missed opportunity!
“Songbird” has other obvious flaws. Why did the writers decide to make the big bad into the “sanitation” instead of the department of public health? Do I smell the odor of class resentment and stigma as a blue-collar man, implicitly a former garbage man, moving up in the ranks is the most terrifying idea. History has historical precedent for scientists and doctors committing horrific acts against humanity. There is a general suspicion of any person being able to control people, which is fair, but it seems to be raised against people who want to keep people from getting sick, not the people who do not care and exposed people to the virus for profit. If the film has a problem, it disguises capitalist, callousness in the cloak of freedom when it is simply a different jail, but one that you cannot come back from—permanent disability or death.
Unexpected plot twist—I am uncertain whether “Songbird” is worse or better than reality. Let’s discuss. I am currently writing this review during the third year of the pandemic, which has been declared to be over. In the film, people are still vigilant against a mutating virus dubbed “COVID-23” and in lockdown. Law enforcement wears masks. Every outbreak is addressed swiftly with containment. There are no cries about, “What about the economy. Masks are child abuse.” Yes, no one wants to live in this movie, but at least they act like an airborne mutating virus can kill. To be fair, we have a vaccine, but it is not a cure. Also the fact that people in this cinematic dystopia are able to live in lockdown without the threat of eviction and not required to work…..the film clearly overestimated how much American systems cares about its people’s welfare. Sure the downside is a government official acting like the wolf in the three little pigs, but nothing is perfect.
Sidenote: one reviewer who will remain nameless wrote, “[L]egitimate concerns rise about refusing to take the vaccine that could save us from the nightmare that is 2020.” Um, I am the first to admit that I may have positive fascistic tendencies, i.e. everyone should take the vaccine, despite going into knowing that I had a lot of risk factors for having a negative reaction to it. Please enlighten me as to what those “legitimate” concerns are. Do we have another polio stan that is glad that it is making a comeback?
If you decide to watch “Songbird,” go into with lowered expectations. There are some fun performances and neat little moments. I can see people being annoyed that never rises to the level of “The Stand” (1994) as the virus becomes more lethal. If you are going to be exploitive, jump in.