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Early inBirds of Prey, theres a fantastical scene that places its star in a curious lineage.
Margot Robbies vivacious Harley Quinn is tied up and being threatened by mob boss Roman Sionis, a.k.a.
In the number, she bites the outstretched hand of one of the suited men around her.
She knocks two of their heads together.
She disrupts the lacquered surface of the often-parodied musical number with a spiky quality.
And she never gets lost in the sequences rapid-fire editing or the hail of bullets that surround her.
Watching the number, I couldnt help but think of the continuum of Hollywood blondes on which Robbie exists.
And the kind of lacquered surface required of a bombshell allows a narrow range of onscreen existence.
This is something Robbie herself is clearly aware of.
I hate it so much.
Director Cathy Yan and writer Christina Hodson blessedly keep the film from falling into simplistic girl-power platitudes.
Heres the thing about being an unruly woman.
It doesnt take much to gain that distinction.
Talk too much, too loudly, and thats enough.
So too is a fat woman, a horny woman, a woman shrieking with laughter.
Harley most immediately takes up space with her voice.
Her Harley has a more rounded, bawdier voice.
Less baby-voiced, more grown, it acts as a weapon.
She rattles off psychiatric insights, poking fun at Black Masks delicate sense of self.
She spits jokes as cleverly and often as curses.
Her laugh is a demented giggle that often pierces through the chaotic action of explicit scenes.
But its just one aspect of Harleys unruliness.
One of the best sequences involves Harley simply trying to eat a beloved egg sandwich from a local shop.
Robbie mines this moment for humor, leaning into the characters natural sense of exaggeration.
She crooks her jaw dramatically to the left and cries out, No!
On its face, this moment is hilarious.
But it also speaks to Harleys dedication to the pleasures in life, above all else.
The superhero genre is often wildly disconnected from the simple joys of being human.
Much of the scintillating excess ofBirds of Preyis thanks to the costuming by Erin Benach.
Her body is supine in his grasp, barely able to stand up on her own.
He drags her to a van, intending to assault her.
Whats crucial about this scene is that Black Canary and Harley arent allies yet.
(Actually, far from it Black Canary finds Harley absolutely annoying.)
The world doesnt quite know what to do with womens passions.
