Funny / Birds of Prey (2020)

"It took losing something that I truly loved for me to see that the target on my back was bigger than I thought."

A story told through the perspective of Harley Quinn equals pure chaos and funny moments.

---

• Harley narrating to the audience, "They say if you wanna tell a story right, you gotta start at the beginning." Cue a sequence of a sperm fertilizing an egg.
  Harley: Too far? Fine.
• The animated sequence of Harley going through her backstory and how her dad gave her away for a six pack of beers. However, she always somehow managed to come back before he sent her off to a nun school.
• One Running Gag is that whenever someone appears that wants to kill Harley, their name (or however Harley identifies them) pops up, along with a grievance they have against her. Ex: "Some Frida Kahlo-looking Asshole" who hates Harley and wants the bounty on Cassandra.
  • Among the many grievances Sionis has against Harley are "have a vagina", "pronounced it 'expresso'", "voted for Bernie" and "calling him Romey".
  • The guy who attacks her apartment is identified with an emoji of Harley shrugging, with his grievance being an eggplant emoji with a "no" symbol over it. Either he's upset that she rebuffed his sexual advances, she's done the unspeakable, or Harley is just assuming that he's compensating for being or feeling impotent. Whichever's funnier.
  • When Doc is introduced, his grievance is "none". A Holy Halo appears around him to emphasize this.
• The scene in which Harley cuts her hair. It may also count as a tearjerker from her perspective, but her hysterical sobbing can play for laughs.
• Harley claims to be fine after her breakup with The Joker. The scene cuts to her in a onesie pajama while crying and squirting cheese spray into her mouth. In the film itself, she's doing this while Bruce the hyena feasts on some lowlife's leg.
  • To clarify, the person Bruce is chowing down on was the pet owner who wanted to have sex with Harley in exchange for the hyena.
  • She states that her breakup with Joker was "Completely mutual"... while hopping out of a gasoline truck at a chemical factory that explodes with fireworks. She also had this idea when she was piss drunk.
    Harley: (narration) "I have the best ideas when drunk."
    Harley: (outloud) I have the best idea!
    • She gets thrown out of the Joker's home in the movie, so the "mutual" part is all but a hilarious lie.
• A lot of Harley's moments when running away from people who want to kill her usually has her escaping out of pure luck. The first time, she manages to cause an accident which takes out three men looking to kill her and Renee. The second time Huntress takes out a dude ready to pummel Harley but she sees a penny and bends down to pick it up right as Huntress shoots him.
• In one of the many Black Comedy bits, Sionis is about to let Mr. Keo's daughter go free from suffering the same grisly fate as her parents... until he sees she has a snot bubble coming out of her nose, making him grossed out and deciding to change his mind.
  Sionis (grossed out): Is that a snot bubble? Ew, gross. Oh, I've changed my mind; peel it off.
• Harley fawning over her bacon-and-egg roll being made before her eyes like it's a high-class delicacy being prepared in the most artistic way imaginable. To vegans and people worried about cholesterol, Harley's appreciation may come across as even more over-the-top.
  • Harley wondering if the cheese being at least six months past its "Use by" date is why the sandwich tastes so good.
• What loss makes Harley realize how she pretty much declared open season on herself without the immunity of being the Joker's girlfriend? Losing her egg sandwich. Her choice of words is near-identical to most superhero speeches about how secret identities are there to protect the people they love.
• From the same sequence, Montoya practically growling as soon as she sees Harley.
• Harley meeting up with Black Canary for the first time, telling her that no one gives a shit about them and calls her Beyonce.
• As Sionis comes in ready to torture Harley, she cuts him off multiple times by pointing out his daddy issues, how repetitive he is in his threats and knowing what he's going to say.
• When Black Mask is interrogating Harley, she tells him to have one of his guys check her pocket. He picks the wrong one and a tampon falls out.
• Harley's "business card" with her multiple job titles such as: Psychiatrist (crossed out), Hit(wo)man Bounty Hunter, Dog Walker, Mercenary, Finder of lost things, Life coach.
  • Even funnier, she's asking other people how to spell "mercenary" because apparently she's not able to herself, and worse, misspells "psychiastrist" as "psychiatriss". Keep in mind this is a woman who, before she got Ax-Crazy, really was as a psychiatrist and was intelligent enough to get a PhD.
• Later on when Dinah and Harley run into each other again they have this to say:
  Harley: Oh hey, you're that singer no one listens to.
  Dinah: Oh hey! You're the asshole no one likes.
  • Harley takes a moment to let that insult sink in before she looks confused and walks off.
• After Montoya has to ditch her uniform due to getting covered in smelly garbage, she spends a good part of the movie wearing a t-shirt that says, “I shaved my balls for this?”
• Dinah saving Harley from two men who are trying to kidnap her, but she is clearly regretting having made that decision.
  Harley: I don' need yer, help. I got this. (tries to lean on a wall and falls over)
  Dinah: Are you sure about that? You sure about that? (holding Harley up) Yeah, no wonder everyone hates you.
  • Then Harley has to sit down as Dinah starts to kick ass.
  Harley: You got this!
• As Harley storms the GCPD and takes a cops ID, she stops to look at a wanted poster of Boomerang and cheerfully notes, "Hey, I know that guy!"
• When trying to unlock the jail cells, Harley spends a few minutes literally pushing every button before using the butt of her gun to break the controls out of sheer frustration. It bites her in the ass a few minutes later, since the locking system breaks down and releases a large portion of the inmates, many of whom are still nursing grudges against her.
• After taking out a whole bunch of goons in the backroom of the jail using her trademark Dance Battler fighting moves, which get more and more flashy and elaborate until she takes down one guy by bouncing her aluminum baseball bat off the ground so that it knocks him out and rebounds back into her hand, when the last guy is about to stuff Cassandra into a car... Harley simply shoots him in the head and tosses the gun aside. It's hilariously offhand.
• After Cassandra reveals to Harley that she swallowed the diamond, they go shopping... for laxatives, of course.
  • As Cassandra complains about Harley's plan, she tells her she has two options: easy way, or the hard way. For hard way, Harley holds up a knife and Cassandra immediately grabs the laxative bottle.
• Cassandra shows off to Harley that she uncuffed herself a while ago, even taking her business card.
• Harley getting prepared for the big fight and giddily says it's like they were having a sleepover.
  Harley: Isn't this fun? It's just like a sleepover. (gasps) Maybe we can order a pizza? Make cosmos?
  Dinah: Harley, focus.
  Harley: Okay.
• Cassandra calling Harley "that psycho chick", which Harley is slightly offended by.
  Harley: You never call a woman "chick". I'll accept "broad", "lady", "woman", and on occasion, "bitch".
  Cassandra: Bitch?
  • Harley then asks for Cassandra to throw a lit stick of dynamite for her, to which Cassandra responds by quickly tossing it out the window and exploding the car that was chasing them.
  • For a bit of meta humour, the trailer didn't bother to censor any of the swear words and followed the "bitch" line with Harley getting Cassandra to kill some people (with the likelihood of at least a few casualties), as if the filmmakers were thumbing their nose at Moral Guardians who find violence less offensive than profanity.
• The shot of Huntress stabbing a guy as they both slide down a funhouse tunnel. When she reaches the end, she gives everyone a "What?" reaction and Harley can only state that she's "so cool".
• "They call me... The Huntress." Nobody calls her that. They call her the much less impressive "crossbow killer".
  • Even funnier is how she actually practices her lines in front of a mirror to get it right.
  • Her big moment...
    Helena: [dramatically] They call me...
    Renee: Helena Bertinelli.
    Helena: [quietly] For fuck's sake.
• After Huntress kills Zsasz and Harley manages to regain some feeling in her limbs, she takes the needle out of her neck and continuously stab it into Zsasz's dead body. Once all of the women come into the room and start to point guns at each other, Harley looks back and forth between this awkward situation before giving Zsasz's body one final stab.
• The look◊ on Black Canary's face at this conversation:
  Black Canary: What's with this bow and arrow schtick?
  Huntress: It's not a fucking bow and arrow, it's a crossbow! I'm not twelve!
  Black Canary: (laughing) I love this chick, she's got rage issues.
  Huntress: I DON'T HAVE RAGE ISSUES!
• Harley gets trapped in a warehouse and her pursuers start shooting around, lacerating the packages which turned out to be cocaine. As the cocaine begins to float around, Harley inadvertently inhales them—and seems to get a power-boost not unlike a video-game character.
• Cassandra noticing Harley's hyena in a tub and she cheerfully says, "I named him Bruce after that hunky Wayne guy."
• Just the fact that Harley's pet "dog" is actually a hyena. And she just nuzzles him, lets him lick her face, and talks to him with Baby Talk and it's all perfectly cute.
• Harley sharing a twizzler with her pet hyena Lady and the Tramp-style. Bonus points for the hyena wearing the exact sort of flea collar you'd expect Harley to pick out.
• Harley and Renee see each other, with both exclaiming "You!"
  Harley: You killed my sandwich!
• Renee is fighting Harley and the two start throwing each other around. One moment has Renee punching Harley in the chest which she lampshades.
  Harley: Right in the tits?!
• The fact that Harley is the one who has to bring up that the Birds of Prey have to work together.
  Harley: He's [Black Mask] after all of us: the kid [Cassandra] just robbed him, you [Black Canary] betrayed him, you [Huntress] killed his BFF [Victor Zsasz] and you're [Renee] dumb enough to build a case against him! So unless we all wanna die very unpleasant deaths... we're gonna have to work together.
  (cue long Beat)
  Huntress: ...Sure.
  Harley: YES!
  • The fact that after Harley points out Huntress killed Black Mask's BFF, Huntress is smiling smugly as if to say, "Hell yeah, I did."
  • She then discusses the Vengeance Feels Empty trope with Huntress:
  Harley: Psychologically speaking, vengeance rarely brings the catharsis we hope for.
  Dinah: [clearly trying not to laugh] Yeah.
  Harley: [looking up] Are we ready?
• Harley goes to show off the weapons she had hidden in the room. Unfortunately, they were probably already taken by Joker. So instead they go looting through what could be Harley's gear box from Suicide Squad.
  • First, Renee grabs the "Daddy's Lil Monster" shirt that Harley wore throughout most of Suicide Squad (2016), which makes Harley say "Not that one, it has sentimental value" (this overlaps with Heartwarming of course).
  • Harley suggests Renee wear the corset to "protect the girls" (gesturing to her boobs.) Hilariously, wearing that gear saves Renee's life as it turns out to be bulletproof.
  Harley: Oooh! Aren't you glad you wore that? Sexy and bulletproof!
  • At one point in the big fight, Harley dashes around on roller skates taking down mooks. Dinah and Helena openly ask "when did she have time to put those on?"
• Because his goons aren't professionals, a lot of them end up falling on their asses when they break into the room where Harley and the others were.
• A meta joke, but the shot of Helena stabbing the mook was shot by the camera man sliding down with them and the impact to the camera was the stuntman hitting the cameraman.
• In a realistic moment that a lot of reviews have pointed out as a way to know this film’s creative team was pretty much entirely women: Dinah's long hair keeps getting into her face during a fight, prompting Harley to offer her a hair tie.
• While heartwarming, the women passing Cassandra around during their fight at Amusement Mile like she's a hot potato.
• Black Mask gets touchy feely with Dinah in front of Zsasz. The camera cuts from an increasingly horrified Dinah to Victor who reacts like a pouty child not getting enough attention, even banging his head against the back of his chair. His jealousy is incredibly palpable.
• After Zsasz tells Roman about Huntress' latest exploits:
  Roman: Nobody kills people I own without my permission! You know that!
  Zsasz: I know it!
  Roman: Why doesn't the crossbow guy know it?
  Zsasz: I don't know.
  Roman: Why don't I own the crossbow guy?
  Zsasz: (massaging his shoulders) You should own him!
  Roman: I mean, I like crossbows!
• Black Mask’s Oh, Crap! reaction when realizing Cassandra put a grenade on him and pulled the pin, before Harley throws him off the pier.
• Near the end of the movie, Harley and Cassandra go their separate ways from the Birds of Prey... by stealing Dinah's car. Dinah and Renee are both horrified, but Helena laughs for the first time in the movie until the other two guilt her into taking it seriously.
• While a little scary, Roman's meltdown after finding out his diamond has been stolen has this gem:
  Roman: These are my things! This diamond is my things!!
• Roman's need to be the center of attention comes into play when Harley and Cass have a heart-to-heart in the film's climax... while he has a knife to Cass' throat.
  Cassandra: If we're apologizing for shit, I have a confession to make.
  Roman: (sounding both confused and offended) EXCUSE ME?!
• In the end, the movie leans right into its budding reputation of being "Harley Quinn and Some Other Women: The Movie" by revealing that Renee, Dinah and Helena formed a crimefighting trio that call themselves "The Birds of Prey", which Harley narrates in a dismissive tone.

Meta

• One of the early trailers for Birds of Prey played before It: Chapter 2 where it seems as if Pennywise was going to appear on screen. However, Harley steps out of the shadows instead, popping the balloons with her mallet and saying, "I'm so fucking over clowns."
• In an interview to promote the movie, one of the interviewers wondered how different the movie would have gone if Harley had just, "been able to finish her damn breakfast sandwich." Margot and Ella both resoundingly agreed.

---