Keaton Delivers One for the Ages

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2015)

Birdman (2014)
**** (out of 4)
Michael Keaton delivers the greatest performance of his career as a washed up actor trying to get his life and career back on track by staging a play, which he wrote, directs and stars in. The only problem is that he's battling a crazed actor (Edward Norton), his just-out-of-rehab daughter (Emma Stone) and various other dramas. Through all of this, perhaps in his mind, the superhero character he's best known for, Birdman, keeps trying to tell him the comeback isn't on the stage.
Director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu has created one of the most original and brilliantly witty satires of actors, Hollywood and Broadway. There's no doubt about it but the director has really created a behind-the-scenes look at a struggling actor but not only given us a glimpse into his career but also all the added drama that comes with trying to do something that you should probably fail at. BIRDMAN is a film unlike anything else I've ever seen and that's something rather hard to do in today's day and age. The film not only tells the story of this struggling actor but it then bitterly asks about what's more important. Wealth? Fame? Should an actor have dignity and go for the art film and respect? The movie drops a lot of names throughout and it's look at these subjects makes one think of ALL ABOUT EVE and Robert Altman's THE PLAYER.
There are so many wonderful things here but we can start on the technical side of things. The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is some of the greatest you're ever going to see and it's so spectacular that this "small" film just needs to be seen on a giant screen. To say the cinematography is a masterpiece isn't an overstatement because it's just amazing to see how it's constantly moving, gracefully floating from one situation to the next and only standing still whenever it makes us enter the souls of the people we're watching. Everything from the lighting to the placements are downright flawless and it really creates an atmosphere like no other film. The drum score by Antonio Sanchez is another masterpiece as it perfectly pulls us into this world.
Then, of course, there are the performances, which rank as some of the best you're going to see this year. Stone is simply wonderful in the role of the daughter who just never had her dad around enough. There's a scene where she loses it on her father and the perfection in the performance can't be missed. Norton also delivers one of his greatest performance as the "serious" actor who can't stand or control the real world.
Both Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis are also excellent. The real highlight is without Keaton who has to play comedy, wit, satire, drama, tragedy and a maniac depression.
Sometimes all of these emotions are needed within one short sequence and to see Keaton pull it off is just some truly inspirational. Keaton has always been an underrated actor but he delivers a performance for the ages here.
BIRDMAN goes through a wide range of emotions but there's no denying the director's brilliance in holding it all together. This film could have gone off the rails on so many levels but when you step back and think about it, how it's all held together just gives you some added faith in creative minds out there today.