Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant) is one of the most respected directors working in North America today. Whenever he makes a new movie, it's bound for the Academy Awards, and today audiences finally got their first look at his latest movie: Netflix's Bardo.
Iñárritu has been keeping things quiet about his upcoming movie for Netflix, whose full title is BARDO (False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths). It was first announced in March 2020 that he would be working on a new movie and that it would be shot and set in Mexico, but little else was revealed for the next two years. With the release of the first trailer, audiences might now know why.
Just explaining what Bardo is about is a challenge. At the simplest plot level, it is about a respected Mexican journalist named Silverio (played by Daniel Giménez Cacho, Cronos) who has been living in Los Angeles and decides to travel back home to Mexico, apparently struggling with his identity along the way. In the first trailer, the Beatles' “I Am the Walrus” plays over a series of dream-like vignettes along Silverio's journey. Water fills up a train, while the passengers seem not to care. People collapse in the street. A woman takes her top off and reveals fried egg yolks covering her nipples. Silverio is arrested at the airport by men wearing 19th century soldiers' uniforms and carrying muskets. What connects all these images is not at all clear.
“The folly of his memories and fears have decided to pierce through the present, filling his everyday life with a sense of bewilderment and wonder," reads the official plot synopsis. "With both emotion and abundant laughter, Silverio grapples with universal yet intimate questions about identity, success, mortality, the history of Mexico and the deeply emotional familial bonds he shares with his wife and children.” If viewers are left feeling confused, they are not alone.
Bardo officially premiered at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this month to a mixed response. The film sits at a 55% critics rating right now on RottenTomatoes, with a critical consensus that reads, “As deeply personal as it is demanding, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths unsteadily walks the line between brilliance and sheer self-indulgence.” In fact, it was recently revealed by Deadline that Iñárritu has trimmed the nearly 3-hour-long film by 22 minutes since Venice, likely to counteract the sour response from some critics.
All in all, Bardo is likely to make a bit of a splash at the Academy Awards, and is still a movie to look out for. Though it may be a difficult watch for some, it will undoubtedly receive praise for its direction and originality. Audiences still know very little about the movie, but it appears to be more cerebral than the director's past works, which often grappled with issues of identity and the line between reality and fantasy—in particular, with the similarly titled Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
Bardo will release in theaters on November 18 and will be available to stream on Netflix starting December 16, 2022.
Source: Netflix/YouTube, Deadline