A Comedic and Moving Satire on Acting

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2014)

If there is at least one film that I implore you to see and embrace, it is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's latest barnburner of a movie, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). The opening shot is like the opening line out of Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" as "a screaming comes across the sky" from above leading to Michael Keaton meditating in midair as he prepares for his first performance on Broadway with his adaptation of Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," in which he stars in and directs. The next two hours is a gripping, funny, and naked look into the world of acting, celebrity, and redemption as Riggan Thomson (Keaton), a former big budget action star from the late-Eighties, tries to get through a hectic three days of preview showings and opening night of his first and maybe last chance of acting. Within the pressure of trying to reclaim his place in the spotlight, Riggan is blindsided by his masochistic, method-acting obsessed co-star (played by Edward Norton) trying to steal his mojo while his daughter/publicist (Emma Stone) and co-star/girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) try to tame Riggan's ego as he goes through a path of self-reflection and destruction due in part to the voices in his head telling him that "he should have done that reality show" and that "nobody wants to see that talky bullshit" he has sacrificed to put on stage. Birdman is a profound meditation on the age-old fight between art versus commerce while focusing on the desire for affection.
Michael Keaton gives a phenomenally funny and poignant performance as Riggan; many critics have questioned whether life imitates art in regards to Keaton's past success as Batman or Beetlejuice before petering out of top-billing status. Regardless of how close Keaton is compared to Riggan, his intensity, humor, and warmth fit perfectly in what is one of his finest performances in quite a while; his verbal sparring session with a New York Times critic shows he hasn't shown signs of slowing down, just shifting into second gear. Emma Stone gives a raw and powerful performance as he chews out his father hours before going out onstage or contemplating life on the theatre rooftop opposite Edward Norton. With a succession of previous successes on screen, Stone gives her best performance in Birdman.
It would be a travesty to label the rest of the cast as "supporting actors" as each of them give their pound of flesh on screen. Edward Norton is incredible as he satirizes the method-acting approach whether it is appearing drunk onstage to feel like Raymond Carver when he poured sweat and liquor over the typewriter or getting aroused when the stage curtains open up for him. Seeing him and Keaton clash heads and egos is like watching Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton duel on guitars. Zach Galifianakis delivers a perfect balance of humor and neurosis as Riggan's shrewd lawyer and only friend. Amy Ryan, as Riggan's ex-wife, gives a solid and stoic performance as she sees Riggan wrestle with his emotions in his dressing room. Naomi Watts, who plays a naive actress getting her first break on Broadway, savors every minute of her brief time on screen by giving a sympathetic and funny performance.
Alejandro Inarritu continues to raise the bar in his canon of films that focus on the human condition with a supernatural twist as he did with Biutiful and 21 Grams. Birdman is the ultimate film nerd's film as Inarritu manages to create a mesmerizing homage to the auteurs of the past; take the excess and surreal nature of Fellini's 8 1/2, the improvisation and layered characters from Altman's films mixed with the philosophical and supernatural style of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, put it in a blender and drink it all up. If there was an Olympic competition for cinematography, Emmanuel Lubezki would reign supreme as his work on the stedicam is fluid and balletic just like his previous work with Alfonso Cuaron. With an incredible cast and a visionary filmmaker at the helm, Birdman stands out as a raw, original, and powerful work of art.