Review: Birdman

Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, an actor who achieved stardom with the superhero franchise of the title that began twenty years ago (He left the franchise in 1992. Hmmmm). Now past his prime, Riggan is struggling to prove he can do something outside of the genre by mounting a Broadway play based on a Raymond Carver short story, with Riggan acting as writer, director, and star of the production. He has a lot more than just dollars invested in this endeavour. The pressure starts to mount as opening night approaches, with a brilliant actor (Edward Norton) known for being an ego-driven hassle to work with, Riggan’s occasional lover (Andrea Riseborough) who might be pregnant, his estranged daughter (Emma Stone) whose drug habit may not be behind her, a truly vicious theatre critic (Lindsay Duncan) sharpening her claws in anticipation of Riggan’s failure (How dare a movie actor set foot in Broadway! Yeah, not one of the film’s most up-to-date ideas), and Riggan’s own nagging self-doubt, heard in the form of a raspy inner monologue that sounds quite a bit like a certain unnamed tempestuous Welsh actor’s own superhero vocal interpretation. Naomi Watts turns up as Riggan’s loyal actress friend and co-star (and Norton’s girlfriend), Amy Ryan is his ex-wife, and a thankfully beige Zach Galifianakis plays Riggan’s producer and attorney.

 

Clearly an original movie if ever I’ve seen one, this 2014 meta-movie of sorts from director/co-writer Alejandro G. Iñárritu (“21 Grams”, “Babel”) earns points for giving the highly underrated Michael Keaton his best role in decades, and an hilarious performance by a very brave Edward Norton. It’s a wild, crazy, and dynamic piece of filmmaking and storytelling. Too dynamic in terms of the camerawork by Emmanuel Lubezki (the very fine “Gravity” from the previous year), cinematic wankery that calls too much attention to itself and prevents the film from being more than it is. Did we really need that many roaming long shots like a drippy Coldplay music vid or something? Almost as annoying is the constantly percussive, jazzy drum score by Antonio Sanchez that although having a purpose, gets old really fast. I really, really, really like a lot of this. Some of it shits me. I guess that levels out to being a good film instead of a great one.

 

There’s some good digs at the amount of big stars turning up in superhero films these days (i.e. Selling out), with Keaton himself of course being the BEST BATMAN OF ALL-TIME!!! There’s also a brilliant dig at airhead reporters/journos who have no sense of culture beyond tabloid magazines and Instagram. Keaton is excellent here as the star past his prime trying for a career rejuvenation as an actor of substance. I think he’s been better elsewhere in films that show off his quick wit and almost devilish dynamism, but he’s still terrific. It’s interesting, he’s not underplaying it at all, yet it’s not your typical Keaton-esque performance (“Night Shift”, “Beetlejuice”, “The Dream Team”), either. He’s so good here that it makes you even angrier that he phoned it in the same year in the “RoboCop” remake. Edward Norton is pitch-perfect, making me wonder if he’s a really great sport or if he’s just oblivious to the fact that he’s playing what is essentially the public’s perception of him. It’s hilarious that his character already seems to know his lines before reading the script, immediately suggests changes, etc. I think both he and Keaton are award-worthy in this. There’s a lot of irresistible meta-movie/insider winking here, playing like a Woody Allen film at times, with a little less nerdy anxiety and a lot more weirdness. Meanwhile, playing Keaton’s cynical daughter with a drug history agrees very well with Emma Stone, not my favourite actress. It’s her only good performance to date (she was later quite good in Woody Allen’s “Magic in the Moonlight”), and it’s pretty obvious who she’s playing here. Naomi Watts is good too, showing off her versatility, though it’s a shame Andrea Riseborough doesn’t have more scenes.

 

The finale is a bit predictable and cliché, and the film just a tad overrated. The ultimate irony is that I prefer “Batman” (The Keaton/Burton one) to this, but it’s still a pretty good film even if visually and aurally it gave me the shits at times. Worth seeing for the excellent performances, and an absolutely hilarious in-joke lampooning Christian Bale’s ridiculously forced Batman voice. Keaton may just have been robbed of an Oscar here. Hell, he would’ve deserved one for “Clean and Sober” were it not for some stellar acting in other films that year. The director wrote the screenplay with Nicolas Giacobone,  Alexander Dinelaris, and Armando Bo. Amazingly with that many cooks in the kitchen, it’s not a mess. 

 

Rating: B-