A polarising film for sure - watchable but ultimately tiresome

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2019)

This is clearly a love-it-or-hate-it film - one seldom sees so many 1s and 10s on IMDb for an Academy Award-winning film. I give it a solid 7 for being watchable, somewhat thought-provoking, made me google a few things, made me think once or twice, laughed a similar number of times.
Loved:
Interesting cinematography. The single-take process is captivating in places, most notably Michael Keaton's quite astonishingly long (though inaccurate and a tad contrived) lapping of the outside of the real-life theatre through Times Square, as well as the technically excellent long day-night shot of the environment. Both scenes had me going, "Wow, that was very nicely done indeed."
Themes. Raymond Carver's take on love in the protagonist's Broadway adaptation of Carver's famed short story had me reading up a bit. Emma Stone's Sam's excellent monologue that ties that somewhat shaky narrative together.
Honesty. Keaton and Norton sort of play themselves, their perceptions by their industry, though vamped up.
Didn't love:
The neurotic and chronically self-congratulatory introspection on the craft of acting, by insiders, for insiders. Hollywood blockbusters versus 'serious' Broadway is oversimplified, too easy, too unsubtle, too navel-gazing for outsiders.
Could have done without:
The tired tropes, like the nasty too-powerful newspaper critic, "I'm gonna kill your play," seriously?, daughter just out of rehab.
Gratuitous lesbianish and attempted rape scenes, and name-dropping George Clooney and Farrah Fawcett in script that simply didn't work.
Length, two hours feels too long for a film with no real plot or character development to speak of.
Pretentiousness, what does "The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" even mean?
Birdman is a somewhat interesting portal into a schizophrenic world occupied by some American actors - money-making comic-book franchises versus "a thousand rich old white people whose only real concern is going to be where they go to have their cake and coffee when it's over." It's a niche schizophrenia.