3 Short Paragraphs: Songbird

 2020, Adam Mason (Hangman) -- download

Ahh the rush to make a movie about the events of the COVID-19 pandemic! Ah, the rush to make movies about the dystopia that follows! Ah, the rush away from being directly associated with all the other absolutely terrible mockbusters (without anything to actually mock beyond the actual pandemic) about the same topic. Ah, the slight avoidance from being seen to cash in on the Pandemic? Nahh. The ambiguously titled Songbird is, without a doubt, a dystopic COVID movie, set in 2024 and they are dealing with an extremely deadly variant of COVID-23. The US is perpetually locked down, only "munies" are allowed outside, and infected (or suspected) people are rounded up to be crowded into Q-Zones where they are pretty much left to die.

This is an ensemble cast, with most being isolated from each other, both by plot and by good faith film production, despite us knowing that shooting one guy in a room means at least a half-dozen other people surrounding him while he is being shot. Anywayz, we get Nico (KJ Apa, Riverdale) and Sara (Sofia Carson, Descendents) - star-crossed lovers who I don't know if they ever met. Nico is immune and passes his day as a bike courier travelling around an empty LA, well empty as he is outside the Q Zone. Sara hides inside her apartment with her grandmother. That is, until Grandma begins coughing. Lester (Craig Robinson, Brooklyn 99) runs the courier business, alone in his warehouse. Emmett (Peter Stormare, Private Dicks) is another "munie" who was once a garbage man, but now fills another role in the Dept of Sanitation -- jackbooting his hazmat suited thugs into the homes of those suspected to be infected, and dragging them off to the Q Zones, or killing them, depending on his mood. This is a peak Stormare character. Meanwhile William (Bradley Whitford, The Cabin in the Woods) and Piper (Demi Moore, St. Elmo's Fire) Griffin run a business of black-market immune bracelets (with appropriate fake credentials) while trying to protect their immunity compromised daughter. Meanwhile William is holding an illegal physical relationship with camgirl May (Alexandra Daddario, Baywatch) who also has a platonic relationship with wheelchair bound drone pilot / vet Dozer (Paul Walter Hauser, Richard Jewell). May is the songbird of the title, but has very little to do with the main plot. They might have just called the movie Artist Trapped.

*deep breath*

This lovely cross-thread of dysfunctional interactions & relationships gets thrown in disarray when Sara's grandmother, who chooses to ignore the lockdown and socializes in their apartment building, comes down with The Covids. It is only a matter of time before Emmett shows up at her door with his guns and pen knife. So Nico has no choice but to get a black market bracelet for her, so they can both escape. The primary thread in this story, is even the people who are careful and understanding about what is going, well they don't seem to care about anyone but themselves -- even the sympathetic leads. This might even, with a bit of a stretch, be seen as an anti-lockdown movie, as any good dystopian movie has nothing good to say about the measures take by the govt. The performances are as tight as they can be, and to be frank, I didn't even recognize Nico as Archie Andrews. Is there a lot to say here? No, but it does get all wrapped up in competently done drama and thriller paper, with a good dose of smudge & soot for a close-to-post-apocalyptic world.