Starring: Alex Wolff, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Katie Chang, Ben Kingsley, James LeGros,
A Birder's Guide To Everything, is the story that follows a group of 3 friends who are in a bird-watching club. When one thinks he finds an 'extinct' type of bird they set out on a mission to find it, bringing along a fourth member.
I'm not quite sure why I've been watching so many woodland-y films following teenagers but here we are. This film was just refreshing to watch as it was such a good-natured film. Sometimes you need a film you can just watch and enjoy, rather than being taken on a roller coaster and having to think.
The acting done by these teenagers was actually very good. They put on an emotive, comedic and realistic performance with no gimmicks involved. I personally loved that there wasn't any forced moments and there was even just silence, I feel that this is something that made the film more mature.
A Birder's Guide, was filmed in a quite a rural space, with a lot of focus on the woodlands. The locations filmed were stunning and seeing so much nature brought the film to life and reminded me a lot of The Bridge to Terabithia. The film was generally calm and slow-paced which I feel worked in favour with the settings used, it replicated nature very well.
The cinematography in this film wasn't anything special and I feel as though they could have done a lot more considering the locations they were in. The attention to detail however, especially in the image above which shows the main characters room, was excellent. All of the posters of birds and the books, were a great touch and really added to the character. In other parts of the film, the attention to detail in the clothing and props of the other bird watchers and hunters is something that I found was just a nice touch to add.
The colouring of the scenes were very pleasant and aesthetically attractive, however again, I felt like they could have done a lot more considering the location and the theme.
Overall the film was definitely unique and had certain depth to it. There were some aspects of the film that I felt were unnecessary however the emotions and humour counteracted this. This was a film, that I thought could very easily be a theme for a Wes Anderson film, saying that, this film definitely isn't going to be everyones cup of tea but worth the watch nonetheless.
