Songbird Review

Songbird was a film that was written and filmed during the Pandemic and subsequent lockdown. It was a cynical attempt to capitalise on the crisis we are living in.

In 2024 the COVID-19 virus has mutated into COVID-23, a more deadly variant. America has experienced a four-year lockdown, millions of deaths, and anyone who is found to have the virus gets taken from their homes to the “Q-Zones.” The only people allowed out are people immune to the virus and they have to wear a bracelet to prove it.

Nico Price (KJ Apa) is one of the few immune people and he works a bike courier in Los Angeles. When his girlfriend, Sara Garcia (Sofia Carson) gets exposed to the virus, Nico races around the city in an attempt to get her a bracelet before the Department of Sanitation take her to the Q-Zone.

Under normal circumstances a film Songbird would be innocuous. It was a cheaply made film that was made quickly, gave everyone who worked on it a payday, and allowed the production companies to make a quick buck. It would have been released and quickly forgotten about. Yet it gained notoriety because it was a film about the COVID pandemic, made during the pandemic.

Songbird had a quick production. The writing process started in March 2020 and it was released in December of the same year. It was filmed in LA when the city was in Lockdown. Combined with the film reminding us of daily events Songbird came across as being made in bad taste. Whilst this was probably unintentional, Songbird had an extra uncomfortable factor because the film shows COVID mutating into a deadlier strain. At the time of writing, there’s news of new infectious variants and fears that they could be resistant to the vaccines.

As a film in its own right, it’s unremarkable. It was made by Adam Mason and Simon Boyes who churned out a load of cheap horror films that most people have probably never heard of. Songbird’s quick production was evident because it was flatly shot, and the screenplay felt like an unrefined early draft. An example of this was a scene where Nico gets chased by Sanitation officers and gets saved by a random paramilitary man who never appears again. Characters like May (Alexandra Daddario) and Emma (Lia McHugh) were underdeveloped and barely had a bearing on the plot. The most entertaining thought the film created was in this world the garagemen end up running society.

The most notable member of the cast was Peter Stormare because he got to ham it up as the villain of the piece.  Every time I heard and saw Craig Robinson I just kept thinking of his role as the Pontiac Bandit in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Carson looked a lot like Lily Collins, a pretty girl with noticeable eyebrows.

Songbird was everything that was expected from it – a quickly made cash-grab that was made in poor taste.