Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is beautifully made but lacking in direction.

I can absolutely respect the craft that went into Bardo as it has some of the most exciting cinematography and camera movement of the year, Darius Khonji did a really fantastic job with the cinematography and really deserves a huge round of applause. Everything else is a huge mixed bag unfortunately, Alejandro González Iñárritu clearly has a lot of talent but the writing just did not come together all that well here. Daniel Giménez Cacho gave a great performance and there were parts of Silverio Gala’s story that were pretty investing, there’s some chaotic energy to the movie that is pretty neat and very welcoming. But for the most part the movie is way too self-indulgent for it’s own good and never settles on what it’s trying to say themes of Mexican culture identity, filmmaking, journalistic ethics In documentary filmmaking and more were explore but not nearly enough to give the idea of what Iñárritu is trying to really say here. The 160 minute running time doesn’t exactly help either, there’s times where the viewer becomes very tired and checks the nearest watch. It’s unfortunate because I’m sure there is a good movie here it’s just not showing up unfortunately.

Bardo is available on Netflix.

5/10 C