5/5
Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is a magnificent, moving film about what it’s like to exist in liminal spaces – being from one country but living in another, striving to be an artist but retain your journalistic integrity, holding onto your grief while trying to let it go, remaining on threshold of life and death… The use of surrealism as a stylistic choice allows the film to bring this feeling of dislocation to life in a powerful, captivating way as it interrogates the nature of truth, myth, and the stories we tell ourselves and others. This is a film that is keenly aware of the class privilege that allows its main character to traverse borders freely, yet because of his country of origin it also understands the prejudice and racism he faces regularly when coming into the United States. This is undoubtedly Iñárritu’s most accomplished film – and certainly his most personal – and he seems willing to be honest and vulnerable in a way that he hasn’t allowed himself to be in other works, revealing fears and truths that go deeper the surface-level machismo of his previous efforts.
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Author: Josh Hornbeck
Josh is the founder of Cinema Cocktail, and he is a writer and director, podcaster and critic, and communications and marketing professional living and working in the greater Seattle area. View all posts by Josh Hornbeck