Birdeater

Engaged to Irene (Shabana Azeez), Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) takes the unusual step of inviting her to his stag (bucks) do in a cabin in the Australian sticks.

Joined by his pals, one of whom has also brought along his fiancée, it soon all becomes testy. Partly down to the provocative Dylan (Ben Hunter) plus drugs and booze the whole thing quickly descends into bitterness and confrontation with added hallucinations.

There aren’t any innocent parties here. They all have secrets or issues they are embarrassed about, or just plain private that is nobodies’ business but theirs.

With their debut feature writing and directing Jack Clark and Jim Weir look to be trying to examine the toxic male and possibly how Australian male society is handling what could be seen as threats to their traditional roles.

Certainly there aren’t many characters here who are very appealing. Louie in the film’s early scenes looks to be the caring type though also manipulative and selfish. Dylan could be the cause of all the aggro in the group their problems are theirs, though there’s no doubting his intended cruelty.

It's interesting and at times very intense. At the core there are some very good ideas and maybe some things do need to be reflected on. The problem is that the film gets bogged down with some very long dialogue scenes that don’t do the pacing a lot of good.

Birdeater at times looks as if it is rambling with some drug fuelled episodes to lighten the load. These however just add to the film’s length that while not excessive feels as if it could have been tighter.

Credit though to the directors being generous to the actors giving them plenty to work with. And while that characters are generally stock, they players are solid in their roles.

Birdeater will be UK cinemas on 9 May and on digital platforms 26 May 2025.