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Even the most confident, successful people sometimes spend time looking back on the choices they’ve made, wondering whether their decisions were the right ones. And with Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades), director Alejandro G. Iñárritu offers up his own introspective journey on film.
Bardo follows Mexican journalist turned documentary filmmaker Silverio Gama (Daniel Giménez Cacho) as he finds himself in the spotlight, about to receive a major award for his work. Since he’s the first Latin American filmmaker to receive the award, he’s being honored with a huge party in Mexico before he returns to Los Angeles, his home for many years, to accept the award. But as he reluctantly joins in the festivities, celebrated by his family, his friends, and his colleagues, he questions his work, his life decisions, and even his national identity.
This successful filmmaker’s journey of introspection follows him through grief and trauma and insecurities, taking viewers along for a strikingly beautiful but often perplexing stream of consciousness adventure through the director’s mind.
The imagery is colorful and artistic, following Silverio from bustling city streets to noisy clubs to seaside resorts. At times, it’s vibrant and playful and over-the-top—and even rather absurdist. At other times, it’s more calm and thoughtful. Through it all, though, the timeline is fluid. There are news reports early in the film that refer to scenes at the end of the film. There are times when the story moves back to recall moments in the character’s past—or explore moments that were merely imagined—with little or no warning. And characters often make references to Silverio’s most recent film, which happens to be this film—which they mention by name.
Even though the final cut is shorter than the one that played at film festivals, the hazy, dreamlike qualities of this beautiful head-scratcher of a film makes it feel long and tiring. It’s incredibly self-indulgent, too—this surreal, meandering trip through the filmmaker’s thoughts and memories and experiences.
Bardo is a very personal work of art for the director—and that often makes it challenging to watch. Throughout the film, he examines some topics that clearly weigh heavy on his mind. But while this personal exploration definitely has some striking moments, it spends so much time in the director’s own head that it doesn’t really let audiences in.
Following a brief theatrical run, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths makes its way to Netflix on December 16, 2022.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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