Tropic Thunder for New Yorkers

Rating: 9/10 (25 February 2016)

This is the definitive New York version of Tropic Thunder. Since New Yorkers have such monstrous cynicism, there is no deep meaning, like Tropic Thunder's "Your identity is established by your friends." This film is as smug as a Prius convention in San Francisco. I love it.
I am trying to craft the rejoinder, the reflection, of Woody Allen's "In LA people just watch movies and eat dinner." I tried "In New York people just watch dinner and eat movies." That's just a stupid symmetric turn-about. Naaa, but this movie, and Margot at the Wedding, and that movie about the kid and his NYC psychiatrist dad or whatever that emotion fest was, they hold the key for what New York is all about.
I think there is gnawing involved. When you pack rats together too tightly, or lets say when you pack small mammals together too tightly, they start gnawing on each other, until eventually they gnaw on their own little mammal feet until they bleed to death. Maybe that's it, "In New York, people just gnaw dinner and then gnaw a movie." Or actually, they gnaw a show.
There is a lot of gnawing here, and you are expected to join in. Two solid hours of gnawing, with unity of place tossed in for good measure.
You can see the LA/NY dichotomy quite clearly when you look at the batch of friends that came together to make Tropic Thunder vs this film. It would be fun to be on the Tropic Thunder set, whereas the Birdman set must have been a stressful hell, what with those long takes. New York requires suffering, from the snow and violence and dirt and from its art as well. Birdman channels Ricardo's labor theory of value via the self-flagellation of the Catholic Church channeled by Brave New World. They suffered, hence this must be good. Yeah, maybe so.
You might look forward to the Tropic Thunder sequel, but I doubt there will be anybody awaiting Birdman Too (the insufferably long sequel).
9 out of 10, but I would have given it a 10 if Kevin Kandenski walked out onto the set, the real film set of the theater set, set in a theater, looked around, and said "How narcissistic are you people?" Then it would be a little like Synecdoche, New York.