Deserving of Oscars for director and original screenplay

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2015)

(Spoiler alerts included) Not surprisingly one of the front-running Oscar nominations, this absorbing film keeps you locked in tight as the protagonist staggers his way toward redemption, even while arousing some laughs. Refusing to perpetuate his superhero film career despite lucrative offers to extend the Birdman franchise ad infinitum, Riggan Thomson attempts to prove himself as an actor and writer on Broadway so his artistic spirit can again take to the skies. He has adapted a Raymond Carver story for the theatre which he will direct and take lead role.
The devil on his shoulder is the Birdman character he used to play on film, who urges him to forgo his theatre ambitions and get back into movie-acting. As Thomson struggles to assert his own identity in angry exchanges with Birdman when he is otherwise alone, he is seen behaving like the superhero character he used to play, propelling objects without touching them. So how human really is our protagonist?
The film has a clever narrative which keeps you guessing about this, as it explores themes of insecurity (parenthood, sexuality, career) and artistry versus celebrity. Consistent with the character Birdman who wears one, the film's motif is the mask whereby the actors are revealed to be unlike the confident persona they present to the world. You are never sure if you are watching reality or a presentation of its subject's imaginings.
The fear of a bad theatre preview is the menace that Thomson has to face, also his effectiveness as a lover and a father. When his daughter Sam harshly criticises his relevance in the world, Iñárritu's direction shows less a reaction from the protagonist but rather focuses the camera close up on Sam's face as her invective goes into overdrive. Like us watching, she starts to realise she is totally self-absorbed and blind to the feelings of others. This diatribe becomes the turning point on her character journey that leads her to help her father fulfil his later.
The plot develops so that the characters in the stage play within the film are unmasked to show them failing to deal with their problems about loving and being loved. They evoke sympathy, even the egotistical method actor who so effectively gets to grip with the play's script and brings it alive yet only comes alive himself sexually while on stage. When the female actors are confronted by their insecurities, they find sexual solace in each other.
Some other reviews pan 'Birdman's failure to amuse. While it is more situational than in witty dialogue, humour is plentiful enough. (spoiler here...) Thomson's unmasking includes losing his dressing gown which gets trapped in the theatre door as he steps outside for a cigarette between scenes. He has to find his way through crowded streets to the theatre front door in his underwear before appearing on stage dressed so.
(more spoiler..) There is a false climax where Thomson is perched above the streets of New York where you believe the film is about to end before the real climax takes place on stage. This is another example of the craft employed where you are kept on edge as the play is acted because you are never allowed to be sure if the stage-play action is going off Thomson's script. There are clues to foreshadow the climax but it is effective when it happens. Finally the tension is released as uncertainty about semblance and reality is resolved.
The only character not to evoke sympathy is the theatre critic determined to see the play close on Broadway. With another twist on the semblance/reality dichotomy, she only changes her posture after the shocking climax to the stage play (and the film), yet not from a change of heart or any realisation about artistry in the performance but out of a pretentious reaction to the violence she has witnessed that prompts her to coin a new theatrical genre - 'ultra-realism'.
While 'Birdman' is well-acted throughout, its Oscar-winning potential is for its screenplay and technical execution. The camera focus hardly ever moves more than a few feet from its subject and the jazz drum soundtrack, appearing to be played live at times, assists in keeping up the claustrophobic tension. The script is well up to developing the film's concept, its themes and characterisation. Its dialogue is fully audible too. If 'Interstellar' wins Oscars for both sound editing and sound mixing, and Iñárritu doesn't win for director and original screenplay categories for 'Birdman', I too will resort to running through Times Square in my underpants...