The Unexpected Virtue of Pretension

Rating: 5/10 (3 April 2015)

Most movies have a basic story flow, likable or interesting characters, and a general theme or message. When a movie like Birdman breaks from this convention, it almost tries to be critic proof by wrapping itself in artiness and obfuscation.
Unfortunately, it also leaves half of the general audience asleep, bored, or angry, though it will struck a chord with some people.
Our main character is a washed up actor trying to put on a play why being haunted by his comic book movie success. 30 minutes in we meet his daughter, who spells out completely how pathetic his attempt to be relevant, covering all the bases of his character. We've now hit our climax. The rest of the movies is just him trying to get through the play and gain critical success. This is where you really start to feel the 2 hour running time, wondering if anything else is really going to happen, and if the voice in his head is real.
Probably the most interesting segment is when the voice in his head starts hovering behind him and becomes an actual birdman, breaking to a scene of the city being menaced by a destructive monster, complete with explosions and a commentary of super hero movies. This where the movie breaks the fourth wall and tells the audience it would rather be seeing this, rather than "depressing philosophical sh*t." But does putting a lamp on the problem solve the issue that we're watching a depressing, unlikable character lament his existence? We're practically watching a drunk, angry guy in a bar rant into the wind. At the end we're clued that this is all in his head.
No dash of pretension would be complete without a rant against critics. Our strawman is a woman who vows to give a bad review because she hates the artist, as opposed to the play being the garbage that it is.
We wrap up with multiple endings where at any point the character may or may not have committed suicide, leaving a "Jacob's Ladder" style perfect life extension.
Plodding through go nowhere stories and go nowhere characters can work for some people if there's more to enjoy. 2001 had cinematography, and Birdman gets by with a single-shot gimmick. Film students will love this, most people won't care. The humor will work for some, but it's style is dry and subjective. You'll laugh at the "smells like balls" line or you won't. Some people will love the anti-super hero movie theme, but conventional story telling exists for a reason, and for each "Transformers" there's also a "Guardians of the Galaxy."
This film is loaded with so many meta jokes that it no longer becomes a story. Either it's a pretentious cinematic rant by and for actors only, or it's an ironic commentary on pretentious commentaries. Or it's vague enough in its themes that it tries to have it both ways.
But mysterious intentions doesn't equal genius. The genius is putting everything in a closed box and have everyone project their own ideas into it. But when people who praise something all seem to be seeing something completely different, perhaps the piece is not as solid as it seems. Maybe we're just seeing shapes in clouds.
If you want to see an arty film, go for it.