Birdman

Director: Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Year: 2014

The battle begins within Riggan (Michael Keaton) who is a Hollywood has-been, once an A-lister known for his turn as superhero Birdman, a caped crusader on the silver screen, who is now looking for admiration, respect and flight anew as an actor on Broadway in a Raymond Carver remake he has penned, is directing and will play the lead role in. “Ambitious,” Mike (Edward Norton) mutters in reply to the news of Riggan’s triple-threat intent. Riggan’s lawyer/manager, Jake (Zach Galifianakis), paces around like a mad man, wildly spewing that everything from the critic that hates him to the actor that will sue them will be both the death of them and somehow be alright. Meanwhile, backstage in the ladies dressing room:

“Why don’t I have any self respect?” Lesley cries.

“You’re an actress, honey,” Laura says.

Indeed they are and it only gets better from there.

The style rules in this slick, darkly funny, exhilarating film with Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu sliding together uncut takes that don’t allow the audience to look away. The starkness of the arguments, the buckets of ego and the surrealistic nature of the film have caused some to criticize the film as pretentious. I’ve found people often throw this label at things they don’t understand or relate to in an attempt to dismiss it. Let’s start here: no film is for everyone. No two people see things the same way. For me, as a filmmaker and actor who has performed on stage and screen and has dealt with plenty of egos, which run rampant on the micro-budgeted projects the same way they do on the blockbusters, this film absolutely sizzles. It’s humor is dark, silly and piercing at once. At the same time, I don’t believe for a minute this film is only for insiders; it’s too well-done for that. In fact, the very things people complain about (e.g. pretentiousness) are the things it both embraces and lampoons – no easy feat.  

Riggan’s Birdman past literally hovers both inside and over him, growling at him, berating him, and seducing him at once. His ex-wife (Amy Ryan) and burnout daughter, Sam (Emma Stone) hound him, too, just at the moment Riggan appears to be gaining control. The fact that the film questions he ever does or will makes the film that much more delicious. Every positive action is met with a resounding thud of a reaction.

One of the stronger subplots of the film is the swipe it takes at TMZ/social media culture. This critique seems to be a recurrent motif in several of this year’s top films (Gone Girl and Nightcrawler come to mind). The desperate world of entertainers is nothing new, but Inarritu has plenty of layers to heap on top of it including the overly powerful critic, ridiculous potency of superhero films and an ending that has people arguing. It’s a rare trick to make this much dysfunction this much fun – but it’s here and Birdman is in undoubtedly in the mix for Best Picture.

Resonance Rating: 4.5 out of 5