Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Songbird Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 31, 2021

Songbird aspires to...something. Who knows what. It's not particularly successful as a commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic, it falls flat as a cautionary tale, and it can't reach the same dramatic interest and emotional resonance and reality as a pandemic Thriller in the same light as Contagion or Outbreak. Here's a movie that's too sprawling and unfocused, reaching with too many tentacles with too few worthwhile plotlines at its fingertips. Its main focus and essential premise isn't half bad, but it's a labor even at under 90 minutes and incapable of accomplishing anything with the material other than merely existing for the sake of existing.

In the near future, COVID-23 has ravaged the world, a world on lockdown, on edge, and on the brink of collapse. Only those who are “immune" are allowed outside of their homes. The future year-to-date death toll in the United States stands at over eight million with many times more that number worldwide. Everyone is required to submit to a cell phone medical scan every morning. Those deemed free of the virus are permitted to remain in their homes. Those who are symptomatic are taken at gunpoint to a quarantine zone where most are left to rot. One of the few immune souls is Nico (KJ Apa) who works as a bicycle courier, delivering packages (which are sanitized under UV light in the transfer process) to shut-ins. He's working to build a relationship with Sara (Sofia Carson) who lives with her elderly grandmother Lita (Elpidia Carrillo). When Lita falls ill, Nico works his connections in an effort to find her an immunity bracelet before she and her grandmother are whisked away to a Q Zone.

If anything the movie is prescient, taking into account the current storylines of the real-world pandemic and expounding upon them in dramatic, but in some ways believable, ways. There are "immunity passes," yellow wristbands (which at one point in the real world symbolized the "Livestrong" movement) allowing those who are verified immune to the virus to freely travel the otherwise cordoned-off streets and into other various decrepit, deteriorating locations. These immune individuals are hated by the others, those who must wear full protective gear to be on the street and those who are shut-in at home. The film briefly explores the social stigma and posits that it is they who are truly "socially distanced;" they cannot interact with others for fear of spreading the virus as a carrier to those susceptible to it. It's an interesting premise that the film never explores to satisfaction, gradually dismissing this concept, and other meaty ones like it, in favor of generic action and broad stroke predictable happenings as the film pushes forward to a stale third act.

When the focus is on Nico, the immune courier, and Sara, his homebound girlfriend, the film finds a stride. When it's exploring that dynamic of a relationship that exists over FaceTime and on either side of a closed door it finds some emotional pull and worthwhile insight into isolation in the modern world. The film plays well when Nico explores the abandoned real world and Sara cares for a frail grandmother in divergent yet dramatically satisfying if never completely compelling storylines which feel rote even as they're the best the film has on offer. It's when the film pushes outward into its character menagerie that the struggles quickly surface. The secondary characters include a pretty streamer (Alexandra Daddario) who moonlights as a prostitute, the husband and father (Bradley Whitford) who risks everything to come see her (including his sickly child), and the wheelchair bound shut-in (Paul Walter Hauser) who befriends the streamer and, later in the film, comes to her aid. These characters allow for a slightly wider view of the COVID-23 world but feel like ancillary filler that contribute little, if anything at all, to the experience.

Songbird Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Songbird's 1080p video presentation is stable and satisfying. The digitally sourced material does show source noise in low light, which can be quite dense within darkened interiors in particular, but these commonplace issues are not of particular distraction to the image. Generally, it is sharp and well defined. Clarity is impressive in the aggregate, revealing complex skin and hair elements with satisfying ease, not to mention well defined environments whether in tight focus or concerning some of the broad views of deteriorating cityscapes, streetways, or the overhead views of the "Q Zones." Color output is steady and pleasing. Contrast is fine, favoring lifelike neutrality. Plenty of good tonal saturation and balance abounds, whether looking at city exteriors, natural greens, clothing, and the like. Black levels enjoy satisfying depth and skin tones look natural. There are no source issues beyond the noise and no obvious encode issues when viewing at normal distance.

Songbird Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Songbird arrives on Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track opens with impressive stage engagement as newscaster voices, in several languages, filter through and around the stage with airy precision. That sense of spatial excellence remains throughout, particularly when helicopters fly overhead with fine stage traversal and a solid low end output on top. Music presents with fine front-end dominant spacing and pleasing surround and subwoofer integration. Several action effects play with robust depth and detail. Environmental fill satisfies. Dialogue clarity, positioning, and prioritization are never wanting.

Songbird Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Songbird contains several extras. An Apple TV digital copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with a non embossed slipcover.

• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 44:59 total runtime): Included are The Old Life; Sandwiches; Nails #1; Westside Bedside; What's the Matter, Alice?; May Sings the Blues; Nails #2; You Ain't Clean!; Nails #3; William Sucks; Narcoleptic Nico; Crack with Your Cocopops; Peeping Tom?; Call Harland; Grandma's Cookies; Giffords; You Let Her Tape You???; and A House Up in the Hills. With optional commentary with Director/Co-Writer Adam Mason.
• The Story of Songbird (1080p, 43:59): An in-depth look at the making of the film, beginning with a talk about the movie's origins and moving on to cover making a film about a pandemic in the midst of a real pandemic, including narrative and technical details.
• "Kingdom" Promo Video (1080p, 3:17): A Music video.
• The Making of "Kingdom" (1080p, 4:07): Making the music video.
• Audio Commentary: Director/Co-Writer Adam Mason and Co-Writer Simon Boyes cover much of the same ground from the 44-minute making-of but also offer new insights and expand upon some of the core concepts to better open the movie to audiences.

Songbird Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Another interesting side film set in this world would be an exploration of the violent rebellion that would surely follow in a world where constitutional, never mind human, rights are so wantonly trampled. There's a hint of that in the movie but it's underexplored in favor of some other side stories that don't amount to much themselves. Songbird can't find a rhythm or a purpose. Maybe there are some good ideas at play, some logical leaps forward in the COVID-world, but it was clearly made in haste and without much feel for narrative content or context. Universal's Blu-ray is technically sound, delivering quality video and audio presentations in addition to a few supplements. Rent it.