Birdman Soars (Literally...)

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2015)

It's one of those rare pleasures when you look forward to a film that was announced all the way back in December 2012, finally arrives and becomes your favourite movie of 2014. With a title like "Birdman", what was I expecting? I remember hearing it was going to be a washed up actor trying to branch out after a lifetime of being known as a popular Hollywood movie superhero. To then hear that Michael Keaton was going to be our lead, it was now obvious that life was going to imitate art as Keaton has always been my favourite actor to play "Batman". A few trailers kept my interest peaked throughout the waiting time, and even after the movie was released October 2014, being in the U.K we still had to wait till January 2015. I've now seen the movie twice in one week, the first time was to admire how brilliantly paced the film was with the performances being fantastic archetypes, and secondly to see how all the dialogue reflects the coded visuals and psyche of the narrative.
Riggan Thomas (Michael Keaton), was well known to movie theatre audiences for portraying a super hero called "Birdman". Now broke and forgotten, he prepares a comeback by reinventing himself as a director/actor by staging an adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". As the play continues to progress, the actors are not up to cut and the premiere date is ever-nearing. Riggan is having difficulties over his private life such as his rehabilitated daughter/assistant (Emma Stone), his talented yet demanding supporting actor (Edward Norton) and a slew of other problems await. Ultimately his sanity begins to unravel as life imitates art, the differences between art and commerce are false when satisfying an ego, and Riggan's apparent "superpowers" and "Birdman" conscience is the only way out of all this mess.
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu went above and beyond with this movie. It's been purposefully designed to look like it was all one long take, and the pacing and energy works really well when you're working in the tight confines of a theatre. It's been supposedly announced that people told him not to do it, but the movie flows seamlessly because of this and the fact that Emmanuel Lubezki's highly imaginative Cinematography goes above and beyond (Lubezki was responsible for the long 15 minute takes of Alfonso Cauron's "Gravity", for which he won an Oscar). The music is the first soundtrack work of Mexican drummer Antonio Sánchez, and it's entirely made up of Percussion instruments that when played on cue reflect both the upcoming events of the scenario, and Sánchez's drummer friend actually appears on screen during the moments of the main characters aggressively fractured mind.
If you plan to see "Birdman" just to see a superhero movie you're wasting your time. I enjoy Hollywood blockbusters as much as anyone else, but I knew from the beginning it was an affectionate and well done parody on what's trending at the moment. The film has a surprising amount to say about remaining relevant in the age of social media, and the characters efforts to refrain from any comments be it critic or audience sadly proves detrimental to his comeback. The film is Michael Keaton's first leading role in quite some time, and he nails it perfectly. I've always enjoyed him as a performer and wished he got to work a little more recently, but this is the role no other actor can play when regarding just how versatile he is given the wonderful ironic situation. Emma Stone was wonderful as always, Edward Norton got to parody himself, Naomi Watts does great and returns from the directors previous work "21 Grams" (2003), and finally Zach Galifianakis was great and kind of represented the only grounded reality in this crazy tale.
Final Verdict: When all is said and done, the best way to explain "Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" is to see it again and again and get more out of it. It will polarise you and may seem a little lacklustre on surface, but there is a deep well of thought going on under it all and the technicality and craft was executed perfectly. It's destined to be one of those great films I've seen about making art like Federico Fellini's "8-1/2" (1963) and Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" (2008), but all in all the wait was most definitely worth it. 10/10.