Bardo Trailer: Oscar Winner Alejandro González Iñárritu Is Back With A New Film For Netflix
For the first time since 2015's "The Revenant," Alejandro González Iñárritu is back behind the camera. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker, who's taken home directing trophies for both the Leonardo DiCaprio survival thriller and 2014's trippy, Michael Keaton-led dark comedy "Birdman," returns with the Netflix film "Bardo." The movie's full title is actually "Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths," and Iñárritu serves as not just director of the project, but also writer, producer, and editor.
Now, "Bardo" has a new trailer, and the film that premiered at Venice looks like a surreal, gorgeous, and potentially somewhat inscrutable work of art. This stunning but disorienting trailer doesn't exactly explain what's going on in this movie, but the film's official synopsis makes its plot a little more explicit. Apparently, the film tells the story of "Silverio, a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles." After being named as the winner of an international award (sounds familiar), he "is compelled to return to his native country, unaware that this simple trip will push him to an existential limit."
The movie looks trippy and beautiful
Daniel Giménez Cacho, a talented actor who, among other roles, played the narrator in "Y Tu Mamá También" and the eponymous character in Lucrecia Martel's "Zama," will take on the role of Silverio. The supporting cast includes Griselda Siciliani ("The People Upstairs"), Ximena Lamadrid ("On The Rocks"), and newcomer Iker Solano. "Bardo" also marks a return to Spanish for the Mexican filmmaker, who hasn't made a film in his native language since 2010's "Biutiful."
"Bardo" itself certainly looks beautiful: the trailer features a gorgeous shot of Silvio walking against a dark gray sky, a surreal moment when the bag of water-dwelling axolotls he's carrying suddenly turns into a flood on the floor of a public bus, and a doubled-up shot featuring the man appraising a version of himself in the desert. The sort of striking but alienating filmmaking that made "Birdman" such a visual treat is on display here in a film that seems designed to call to mind the works of self-reflective yet mythmaking artists like Federico Fellini (a choice which, according to our review by /Film's Marshall Shaffer, doesn't quite work). Plus, the trailer uses the song "I Am The Walrus" by The Beatles, which is the quickest way to let viewers know they're in for a trip.
"Bardo" will premiere in theaters on November 4, 2022, and on Netflix on December 16, 2022.