By: Andrew Wing

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Spanish: BARDO, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades), or known simply as Bardo, is a 2022 Mexican drama film co-written, co-composed, edited, produced, and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), The Revenant).

The film stars Daniel Giménez Cacho (Y Tu Mamá También, Cronos) alongside Griselda Siciliani, and follows Silverio (Cacho), a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker who returns to his native country of Mexico and begins having an existential crisis in the form of dreamlike visions. It is Iñárritu's first film to be fully filmed in Mexico since Amores perros in 2000.

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion on September 1, 2022, and was released in theaters on November 18, 2022, then streamed on Netflix on December 16, 2022.

THE GOOD

Going into 2022, Bardo was without a doubt one of my most anticipated movies. I love Iñárritu as a director and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a perfect film in my opinion that is easily one of my favorites. The movie was getting a lot of awards buzz in early 2022, but after it premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, it got very mixed reviews and all the buzz around awards pretty much disappeared. To be completely honest, that only made me more excited to finally check this out once it hit Netflix, and I finally got around to it! So was this another great film in Iñárritu’s catalog, or was it what some are calling his worst film yet? Keep reading to find out!

While I don’t think it was as great as his masterpieces like Birdman or other amazing films of his like Amores perros and Babel, Bardo is still a really good movie in my opinion. It certainly won’t be for everybody and I will touch on that later in the review, but I am always so amazed by what Iñárritu does in the director’s chair. This movie was daring and ambitious and some people will fault the movie and him for that, but I really admired what he did here. He tackled a lot of big ideas here and while he didn’t do it perfectly, I still think he is worthy of a lot of praise. His framing and blocking in every scene were top notch and I am obsessed with the way he uses camera movement in his films. And lastly, I loved all of the comedy in this movie, and it really just makes me want to watch Iñárritu do a dark comedy movie because I think he would crush it.

Aside from Iñárritu’s direction, this movie is carried by a great lead performance from Daniel Giménez Cacho. I have seen Cronos, the 1993 Guillermo del Toro movie he had a supporting role in, but this was only the second performance of his and I was really impressed. He absolutely carries this film on his back as the main character Silverio, who is a stand-in for Iñárritu himself. Cacho conveys a lot of his character’s emotions in the film through his facial expressions, but he has some scenes that are heavy with dialogue too that I thought he crushed. Also, he has a great couple of minutes of dancing too in what was one of my favorite scenes of the film. Aside from Cacho’s lead performance, I do want to give a shout-out to Griselda Siciliani, the beautiful Argentine actress who played Silverio’s wife, Lucía, who I hope following this gets in more stuff!

As good as Iñarritu's direction and the performances were, the best part of Bardo is without a doubt Darius Khondji's cinematography. Khondji has shot some pretty great films in the past like David Fincher’s Se7en, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems, and also earlier this year, James Gray’s Armageddon Time (see my full review here). That said, what Khondji does here is remarkable and it is right up there with some of his best work. There are just so many shots throughout the film that I was in awe of and I put it right up there with Nope (see my full review here) as the film with the best cinematography of 2022. It’ll be a true shame if Khondji doesn’t get nominated for Best Cinematography at this year’s Academy Awards, but I’ll hold out hope that he can get a nom for the next movie he is shooting, Bong Joon-ho’s upcoming sci-fi film Mickey 17 that I just cannot wait for!

THE BAD

As previously mentioned, I thought Bardo was a really good movie, but I totally can see why the movie has gotten such mixed reviews. The writing, and the movie in general, has gotten a lot of flack for being a little too self-indulgent, and I get that. That said, this movie is a deeply personal one from Iñárritu that tackled his identity and his life, and I was just fine with it. That said, and I am not one to complain about long movies, but this movie could’ve lost a whole hour off the final cut, which is crazy to say considering that this cut was 22 minutes shorter than the one screened at Venice and Telluride for critics. The film clocks in at 160 minutes which along with the fact that it is completely in the Spanish language just makes it hard to recommend because that is certainly a commitment.

THE VERDICT

Despite the long runtime, BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is still a really good, deeply personal drama film from one of my personal favorites, Alejandro González Iñárritu. It is backed by great direction from Iñárritu, good performances from Daniel Giménez Cacho and Griselda Siciliani, and some of the best cinematography of 2022 from Darius Khondji!