Review - Birdman, Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance

Birdman's a strange bird of Hollywood in recent times - it successfully blends dark comedy and psychological drama in same film.

Hollywood has some strange obsession with obsessive, twisted and deluded artists. Sunset Boulevard, Opening Night or even recently, Black Swan are some of the examples. Enter Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, whose central character has to prove that he is capable of doing not only pop-corn superhero flicks, but also complex artistic work as well.

Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is an American actor in his early fifties, whose career is pretty much done. He starred in highly successful "Birdman" superhero films, but due to his own personal choice, he refused to do further sequels way back some decades. Now, in hopes of rebuilding his career, he stages an adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story "What we talk about when we talk about love", in which he is all set to play a character and direct as well. Ambious.

Of course it is not as easy as it seems - he has some serious issues with casting. He replaces the male lead, by a narcissist, but outstanding method-actor Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), who makes his life no easy. He has an affair with co-actor Laura and she is pregnant. Her daughter Sam (Emma Stone) has just came back from rehab and Riggan needs to be there for her too. Her ex-wife expects a lot from him. He is facing legal issues with an ex-cast member too. Maybe that was not enough, he is also self-delusional - he thinks that he has telekinetic powers and he can fly. Levitate. Save the world. Birdman's voice is in his head - he says things, a lot of them to Riggin. And yup, there is a snooty critic too, who is going to write a pretty bad review by all means. Reason? She hates Riggin. As the opening night nears, Riggin goes more and more into the psychological turmoil. Will he be able to perform good?

Although all of this may sound hotchpotch, but I don't know how, but Iñárritu along with his three more writers has successfully translated it on screen. And in a single shot no less, more on that a bit later. The film poses some obvious questions about popular culture - the role of critics, success of no-brainer films, social media, artistic merits and so on. Along the way there are some really funny moments - one scene involves Riggin maneuvering through late-evening Times Square in white underwear is a highlight.

Acting is all-around outstanding. Michael Keaton is tailor fit for this role. As many of you may know, he did played Batman in late 1980's, way before Nolan's version came. Funnily enough, Birdman also has Batman-esque voice. Keaton's work here is outstanding - even on stage, where he is supposed to "act" as if he is in a play, his shows wide range of emotions. Norton's performance is equally great - there is a scene involving his character on stage early in the film which is downright hilarious. Emma Stone has never been so good. We also have Naomi Watts here (and a surprise lesbian kissing too, unwarranted). The overall tone of acting by everyone here is a bit hammy, but that's how it is supposed to be.

And now the single-shot thing. The whole film is shot (or lets say edited/computer manipulated) in such a way that the most of its 2-hour duration feels like a single, continuous long shot. Cinematographer here, no guesses required, is the brilliant as ever Emmanuel Lubezki, who won Oscar last year. When you see it, the camera work sucks you right into the film. It is sometimes obtrusive, but it does sets the mood and atmosphere of the theater backstage so well that you feel that you are walking around these characters. Editing also requires a special mention because to seamlessly combine many shots into a single one requires great hard work. Only thing which does not works here is the background score - which does not fits well into the film.

Birdman, however, left me a bit unsatisfied. There is something missing. Maybe its theme, obsession to prove your work, is done may times before. The atmosphere of the film however, leaves a great impact on you. The narrow corridors backstage, the make-up rooms, rooftops and Times Square at night - Birdman is a visual delight. By the very end,  the film has wonders here and there. It is one of the very good films of the year.

4/5