A Michael Bay-produced movie about the pandemic is an ingeniously made film of the moment even if its plotting gets a little rote
The news that not one but multiple Covid-19 vaccines are on the way to pharmacies and hospitals worldwide came as a relief to us all, a confirmation that some semblance of normality would return in the next 12 months or so. But for the makers of Songbird, an audaciously assembled pandemic thriller that imagines a not-too-distant reality where Covid-23 has killed more than 100 million people, it dumps a truckload of dust on the film’s fearful “what if” worst-case scenario, edging it even closer to science fiction. For many of us, the recent good news might make it more palatable to watch something intended to squeeze tension out of a situation that’s already quite tense enough. There’s a distance now, at least for those who are lucky enough to be healthy and safe, that allows us to see it for what it is rather than what it might show us about the future.
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