A tyrannical government, elitism and the rise of a dictator. Has the Hunger Games ever been more relevant?
A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the prequel to the Hunger Games series. Set sixty-four years before we meet Katniss Everdeen and following perhaps the evilest of YA antagonists, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a story that’s a great gamble. How can there be a Hunger Games without the much-adored original characters? How can we care about Coriolanus Snow? Like the book, this film more than deserves its place in the series.
As you’d expect, no costs are cut in worldbuilding. The Capitol is beautifully realised – an intoxicating combination of Ancient Rome and slick futurism. We begin the film there with a hyperreal colour palette and its blend of Classical throwbacks jarring with the modern. The viewer is similarly disturbed by Coriolanus Snow, the teenager who will become the despotic President, morally grey from the start but not unsympathetic. We see his most traumatic childhood memories and the poverty he lives in and despite ourselves, it’s difficult not to half-root for the future tyrant.
The film follows the earlier series’ precedent of casting emerging young talents alongside a few big names (Peter Dinklage and Viola Davis feel gorgeously natural in the Capitol). Rachel Zegler, just two years on from her debut in West Side Story, perfectly embodies the danger-laced charm of the novel as Lucy Gray Baird. Whilst this film is largely from Coriolanus’s perspective and we are not as in sync with Lucy’s thoughts, Zegler has already made the role iconic – you only need to open TikTok to be bombarded with her country-rock style songs from the film. Tom Blyth is equally great as Coriolanus Snow bringing a vulnerability to the character it is easy to overlook in the novel. Coriolanus’s shift from morally grey to downright villainy is never cartoonish and very well-acted. This is subtle and Blyth excels in the film’s ending, Coriolanus’s eyes harden against the world and he adopts the slow speech of Donald Sutherland in the role from the original series. Chilling. Other newcomers Josh Andrés Rivera and Hunter Schafer (Sejanus Plinth and Tigris respectively) also bring depth to smaller yet crucial roles that influence the future President.
We’re used to Hollywood sanitising YA adaptations. Luckily, this hasn’t happened to A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. We open with one of the most taboo scenes from the book. The film also captures the tributes’ youth and is casually representative of disability in a way the 10s series didn’t quite capture. This new addition allows us to be shocked by Suzanne Collins’ universe yet again, no mean feat.
I really recommend seeing this in 4DX if you have the chance. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes doesn’t skimp on interactivity, the Games segment is particularly immersive. You’ll feel like a Capitol citizen for a few hours – just hang on to your popcorn.
5/5
Image Credit: Moviedb
