Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths Reviews

Since I have always been a big of fan of Alejandro González Iñárritu, of course, I was really eager to check his last directing effort. On top of that, it was the first time he was making another movie in Mexico in more than 20 years. Well, even though the guy had pretty much a flawless track-record so far, I’m afraid this movie turned out to be his first misfire. It’s not that it was bad, basically, it was some kind of supercharged Felliniesque jigsaw puzzle and, if you are into this kind of movies, you might end up really enjoying it. On top of that, it’s not surprising that Iñárritu has won 2 Academy Award for the Best Director as the directing was here really strong and the damned thing was visually pretty neat. However, as far as I was concerned, it turned out to be a long indulgent and rather pretentious ego trip. I mean, there were some bits and scenes which did work fine. For example, it has been a while since I have seen such a sweet and convincing middle-aged couple and some scenes seemed to have been plucked right out of my own dreams. Unfortunately, there were also many scenes for which I didn't care much for or even at all. For example, all the scenes involving this CGI baby were just rather cringe-inducing but, above all, this movie never really worked as a whole. It didn’t help that, in spite of the rather extensive running time, you learn really nothing about the characters, even the main character. Basically, the guy was a rather pretentious film director (I wonder why he kept saying that he was a ‘journalist’) going through a middle-life crisis and feeling a lot of self-pity. With such a gorgeous wife, some really bright kids and a seemingly really cool job, you might wonder why the guy kept whining all the time. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie never really worked, at least, not for me, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s work.