Irene (Shabana Azeez) and Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) are gearing up to get married, with Louie’s stag do (or bucks party as it’s known in Australia) on the horizon. Struggling with separation anxiety, Irene agrees to attend and she’s pleased when her female friend Grace (Clementine Anderson) tags along too. With Louie’s unpredictable friends in tow, alcohol and drugs start to flow and the party takes a turn for the worse when details of Irene and Louie’s relationship are aired publicly. What unfolds is a nightmarish and feral evening, that pushes everyone to the brink.
‘Birdeater’ is from directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir, and it’s a bit of an odd film. Billed as ‘nightmarish and hallucinatory’, the film has an identity problem from the outset. Is it a horror? Is it a thriller? Is it a social commentary on toxic masculinity disguised as a drama? Honestly, it’s unclear and over its 2-hour runtime, the film doesn’t really shed any light to help you categorise it. From the outset Irene and Louie seem mismatched, with Irene struggling with anxiety that means she struggles if she’s not with Louie at all times. Obviously, this isn’t a healthy relationship but oddly neither Irene nor Louie seems to acknowledge that. You could even argue that Louie inviting Irene to his bucks party is indulging her rather than helping her.
Upon her arrival at the party, it’s clear that Irene and Grace’s presence isn’t particularly welcome. They’re quickly thrown into an environment dominated by toxic masculinity, led by outlandish Dylan (Ben Hunter) and committed Christian (with a ton of unresolved issues) Charlie (Jack Bannister). For the first half hour you’re waiting for something to happen and sadly nothing really does. There’s a lot of talk about toxic masculinity and about the potentially nefarious beginnings of Irene and Louie’s relationship, with some of the men comment on the unhealthy nature of it, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. It takes the film a full near 90 minutes for anything to really happen and by the time it does, you’re just waiting for the end credits to arrive.
The final 30 minutes part-deliver the ‘nightmarish and hallucinatory’ promise of the marketing material but not in any way that’s satisfying. It feels like a bunch of random scenes thrown together to disorient the viewer but it adds little to the story. The climax isn’t helped by the total lack of character development for everyone involved. Irene is never anything more than anxious, Dylan (despite a super performance from Ben Hunter) is the token wildcard, Louie is wetter than a box of frogs and potentially a creep (though it’s never really confirmed) and so on.
‘Birdeater’ is a film that has absolutely no idea what it wants to be. By never settling on a genre or direction, it winds up being nearly 2-hours of talking and not very much action. From the under-developed characters through to the paper-thin premise, I felt more like I was being lectured about toxic masculinity than watching a coherent film unfold. ‘Birdeater’ ends up being not much of anything and I felt like it was time I could have spent doing something more productive.
Cast: Mackenzie Fearnley, Shabana Azeez, Ben Hunter, Jack Bannister, Clementine Anderson, Alfie Gledhill, Harley Wilson Directors: Jack Clark and Jim Weir Writers: Jack Clark and Jim Weir Certificate: 15 Duration: 113 mins Released by: Blue Finch Film Releasing Release date: 9th May 2025 (cinemas), 26th May 2026 (digital)
