Don’t Try to Understand ‘Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,’ Feel It.

Many films are labeled as “contemplation pieces.” However, most films don’t fit into this category as well as Bardo does. Bardo contemplates many things: life, death, success, family, and identity all through an examination of the Mexican condition. And yet despite this, the film manages to touch on these subjects without ever thinking about them. In other words, like what Silverio says to Luis at the Mexican event to celebrate Silverio, the film prefers to feel things rather than to think about them. And while this might be taken as categorizing the film as unintelligent, Bardo achieves something that is more profound than putting forth thoughts about its themes. Moreover, it seems as though that everytime the film gets close to making a statement presented as a fact, it pivots to something else. We see this in the scene in which Silverio talks with Cortes, and just as they are about to agree on the nature of how Mexico came to be, we are presented with a further reality: that they were actually acting out a scene for Silverio’s documentary.

City Square in Mexico City where Silverio meets Cortez in the film.

Bardo, therefore, continually refers back to itself, both in its self-awareness and its nostalgic tone. All of this makes for an achievement that films (not to mention a Netflix Original) have not achieved for some time now: a personal, contemplative film that is not overly outward so that it becomes preachy and not too inward that it becomes inaccessible.

A review of this film would not be complete without referring to the gorgeous, wide angle cinematography in which Darius Khondji emulates Emmanuel Lubezki (why Lubezki was not hired is a separate, unknown matter). In all, Bardo achieves not only as a cultural document which feels and understands the context of Mexicans (and Mexican Americans) today, but also works as a universal text about family, success, love, and life. In doing so, Bardo shows us the feelings that come with all of these notions, and if one looks hard enough, a handful of truths can also be found.