Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Birdman! So it’s a film … starring a former movie superhero lately marginalized by age and obscurity … about a play … starring a former movie superhero lately marginalized by age and obscurity. For what Alejandro González Iñárritu was going for it couldn’t have worked better if he’d exhumed Christopher Reeve and given him the title role.
Birdman opens with Michael Keaton stripped to his tighty-whiteys sitting cross-legged on nothing; he’s levitating above his seedy dressing-room floor. “How did we get here?” His inner monologue questions with a touch of incredulity and disgust, “…this place smells like balls.” That’s probably all you need to know about whether you want to see this film.
What I mostly take away from Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is insecurity. My, are actors fragile things. Poor, poor actors. Riggan (Keaton) has decided the best way to avoid the irrelevance of age is to finance a Death-of-a-Salesman-type play on Broadway. Birdman explores the scenes behind the production. This is an Emerald City film where we get to pull back the curtain and reveal the wizard as a weak charlatan. There’s no new ground conquered in straightforward exposure of what it takes to bring a play to life; what is new is the choice to focus on dress rehearsals (i.e. stuff that doesn’t matter, but has a live audience anyway), zero cuts (that’s some quality editing) and a weird surreality in which Riggan is constantly tormented by his super-powered alter ego. Is Riggan really Birdman? Can he fly and fight crime? Or has he lost all sense of reality?
I’m not saying if Birdman resolves or fails to resolve those question, but I am saying you’ll be dissatisfied if finding resolution is your chief reason for seeing the film.
Alone with his thoughts, Riggan welcomes Birdman; there’s nothing like blowing off steam with a little levitation and telekinesis. When not alone, Riggan has no end of frustration from the clown-car like collection of of semi-formed humans around him – the nervous-breakdown producer Jake (Zach Galifianakis), the disaster-in-waiting daughter/personal assistant Sam (Emma Stone), the ex- (Amy Ryan), the not-so-exes (Naomi Watts & Andrea Riseborough) and the actor-so-consummate-he-is-only-comfortable-on-stage Mike (Edward Norton).
None of these feel like real people. That’s fine; they’re actors. Perhaps it’s summed up in Mike’s erectile dysfunction off-stage, but when a scene calls for him to be caught in bed with another man’s wife, he can get a full r
ager goin’ – and then seeks reviews for little Mike’s performance as well. I’m thinking, “A little stiff.”
This film is painfully self-aware. Even so much as a stage critic is targeted for her harsh treatment of honest performers. Be very careful when you attack critics, Alejandro González Iñárritu. Yes, the bitter here was so open and bare-toothed that it has to be tongue-in-cheek. But there’s a very thin line you’re treading. For example, I’m not a critic because I’m a failed actor or writer. I’m a critic because I like to write and I like to see films. Lumping all of us in that “you can’t do what I do” category smacks of the same weird insecurity and inferiority complex that most of your characters here already exhibit in spades.
(Btw, I don’t really need to point out the unnecessary and overlong parenthetical title extension is at best confusing and at worst pretentious, do I?)
Birdman is probably best described as a former star’s struggle with his inner demons. Well, that and his struggle to get dressed. I don’t ever need to see Michael Keaton in his drawers again; that happened waaaaay too much in this film. In all likelihood, Keaton will never have another iconic Batman role, but it’s clear from Birdman that’s he’s accepted and adapted well to a different stage in his acting career. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of him. Just, come dressed next time – you, too Ed Norton. Emma? Optional. Just sayin’.
♪I can’t wait to fly
That used to be my thing
My irrelevance
Is quite a painful thing
I’m more than my past
I’m more than my play
I’m more than the other egos in my day
And it’s not easy to be sane♫
Rated R, 119 Minutes
D: Alejandro González Iñárritu
W: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo
Genre: Emerald City film
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Theater goers
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Fans of level one illusion only
♪ Parody inspired by “Superman”
