Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2023)

1 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Film Quaking

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

The over-celebrated filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu — who won back-to-back Best Director Academy Awards for Birdman and The Revenant — is back with perhaps his most bloated, grossly self-indulgent movie yet. Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths tells the story of a documentary filmmaker, Silverio Gama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), who is chosen to receive a special award, and will be the first Latin person to do so. A Los Angeles dweller, he returns to his native Mexico for interviews, parties, etc. But the film is designed as a series of imaginary sequences, or hallucinations, or dreams, or nightmares, or what have you. Iñárritu cooks up tons of strange, preposterous images, such as Gama climbing a mountain of human bodies (the scene turns into a film shoot), or splashing about in a foot of water on the floor of a moving train (which then merges seamlessly into an apartment). It's so woozy and disconnected that it's difficult to hang onto anything for the ludicrous running time of 159 minutes, and there's little to care about. The show-offy cinematography received an Oscar nomination.