Great technicalities and acting, yet the story only revolves on itself

Rating: 6/10 (23 January 2015)

Riggan Thomson was a big Birdman superhero movie star from twenty years ago. Now in an effort to get back in the game, he writes, directs and acts in his own Broadway play adaptation of Raymond Carver's story "What We Talk When We Talk About Love". But his old Birdman had nested in him and formed a split personality voice, cursing him for not going back to play as Birdman again. When a co-star Ralph gets an accident, he single- handedly changed him for Mike, a great-ambitious-but-acts-like-a-snob actor. His producer/lawyer/best friend Jake constantly reminds him of the financial problems they have, including having to talk Riggan down so that he keep Mike in the production after Mike crashes a rehearsal preview. On the other hand, Riggan has to constantly keep the confidence level of Leslie high. Leslie is a Broadway newcomer actress, who had a thing with Mike sometime a while ago. Riggan's daughter Sam was recently out of drug rehab and currently works as his assistant. His ex-wife Sylvia is constantly nagging him about Sam. His girlfriend and co-star Laura gives him the news of her pregnancy. And not the least of his problems is the NY Times critic Tabitha, who threatens to give him a bad review due to hating everyone who sells out to Hollywood.
Riggan himself is the type of man who shuns internet developments. He doesn't have any blog or Twitter or even Facebook. One night while only in his underwear, Riggan gets locked outside the theater's back entrance. He walks all the way through Times Square to the main entrance, resulting in amateur YouTube videos that go viral almost instantly. Riggan finds out that Mike and Sam are having a relationship. The Birdman persona keeps nagging him with verbal harassment and giving him hallucinations. At last Riggan's play enter the opening night, and the crowd really likes it. After a talk with Sylvia, Riggan goes back to do the final scene where he shoots himself. Previously Mike had complained about the gun looking unrealistic, so this time Riggan uses a real pistol, shooting his nose off. He ends up at the hospital. But he regains his success with thousands following his Twitter Sam set up. Sylvia is there with him. Jake is also happy for his success. Sam comes to visit. The play went well with Laura and Leslie acting great.
The story for me has a nice setup base. It starts with very potential points that deserve more development. The combination of all those problems Riggan has is just sitting there waiting to be developed and explored upon more. But instead the movie just hovers its way around Riggan with some little bits of time when the movie centers on Sam and Mike. Despite the eventual relatively happy ending, Riggan's cocktail of problems don't get any more scene showing them being actively solved.
What really makes this movie deserves its praises and credits are those meticulously designed and executed technical aspects. The editing design that makes this whole movie feeling like almost entirely a one-shot is indeed an exceptional work of art. The camera angle play and movements are just plain ecstatic. We see this trick once or twice on many movies. But Birdman just makes us see this all throughout.
The acting is also an exceptional work. All the cast responded very well on those close ups, pouring all the seriousness into their acting. I agree to the voices saying that this is Michael Keaton's best performance to date. His expressions and mannerisms successfully made Riggan a very unpredictable character. Edward Norton as Mike also acted out greatly with his body language. Zach Galifianakis at a serious role proves he still has a lot to offer. Naomi Watts, Emma Stone really nailed it at her close up emotional scene. Andrea Riseborough and Amy Ryan really add significantly to this movie.
For me Birdman (2014) deserves a 6 out of 10 score, while a recommendation is only a so-so for me. It's indeed not for everyone. I find this movie more entertaining from its technical and acting prowess than its actual storyline.