Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
(9 out of 10)
Starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, and Emma Stone. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Writers Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone.
“Birdman” is a movie I’ve been looking forward to since I heard the concept. An actor most famous for a superhero role twenty years ago is trying to make a comeback–but people can’t see past his “heroic” past to see if he has any talent at all. That’s an interesting concept in itself, it may appeal to a few people…until the star of the movie is Michael Keaton. For a generation of us, Michael Keaton’s best role will be Batman. He was in the 1989 Tim Burton movie that was the spark that’s led to dozens of superhero movies, and famously stepped away after “Batman Returns.” He turned over the cape and cowl to successive Batmen, and went back to acting in other films and television programs. His portrayal of Riggan Thomson, best known for playing Birdman, is so intertwined with his own real-life history that you can’t watch it without thinking of Keaton’s time as Batman, and what’s happened in the intervening twenty-five years. It’s definitely not a superhero movie, and it will be too artsy or cerebral for a wide audience, but it reached me.
Keaton is in nearly every scene of the movie, which in some movies can be tedious. His performance is varied enough that you don’t quite know which Riggan Thomson to expect from scene to scene. He’s the director, author, and star of a play opening on Broadway, and the stress of the production has him at the tipping point of madness. Keaton’s good at playing along that edge, in almost every role I’ve seen him in. He’s got the calm and charisma of a leading man. Inside, you know if he’s pushed too far, that wildness in his eyes, the twist of an eyebrow, is going to turn into full-blown mania. Watching that ticking time bomb is what makes “Birdman” enjoyable, but also a little uncomfortable.
Watching that time bomb is what makes “Birdman” enjoyable, but uncomfortable
Riggan is surrounded by friends in the fellow actors and his producer buddy Jake (Zach Galifianakis, in his most understated role ever), who are trying to help him get the play made. Days before the production is set to open, a lead actor is injured, and Broadway star Mike Shiner (Edward Norton) comes in like a hero to save the day. Just as Michael Keaton’s biography overlays Riggan’s, Edward Norton seems to be playing a (slightly) exaggerated version of himself. We’ve heard that Norton can be difficult to work with, and Shiner is worse. A true method actor, he drinks actual alcohol on stage, he gets a tanning bed so he can have a real “redneck,” and is obsessed with finding the reality in every character. He becomes an antagonist for Riggan, but also makes his play possible. Somewhere between ally and enemy for Riggan is his daughter Sam (Emma Stone). Stone is one of those actresses who can do no wrong in my book, and here she’s as remarkable as always. Fresh of out rehab, Sam resents the life that she’s been given, with an absent, divorced father. She’s his personal assistant for the play, and makes it clear that she’d rather be doing anything but hanging around her dad all day. She plays this with just the right amount of anger that you’re a little afraid of her, but enough vulnerability that you want to see her happy.
I read the headline of a review of “Birdman” that said director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was “trying too hard.” Seeing that made me resistant to accept some of the choices in the film. The most noticeable conceit is that the entire movie is made to seem like it was done in one take. It’s impossible to film a two hour movie in one take, of course–but the movie is fairly seamless. In interviews, Emma Stone mentioned that some of the scenes would take over ten minutes in a single shot, which had me watching a little too closely to see where the filmed scenes would begin and end. Watching for those cuts pulled me out of the movie-watching experience, instead of enhancing it. That said, “Birdman” is entertaining has layers of messages in the screenplay (by Inarritu and Nicolas Giacobone) that moved it past a movie about an old superhero franchise, and into something more deeply personal, for the characters and for us.
moves past a movie about a superhero and into something more deeply personal for the characters, and for us
Each of the main characters has an extended monologue at some point in the movie, usually directed at Keaton’s Riggan. These include Norton, about the importance and power of acting; Keaton to various characters throughout the movie about his personal trials. The two speeches that stuck with me most were one, late in the movie, from a New York Times critic–she meets Riggan in a bar the night before his play opens. She lays into him with a viciousness that made me want to curl into a fetal position. The critic essentially blames Riggan “and his friends” for the destruction of cinema, of acting, of art itself. With Hollywood’s shift to superhero movies, the emphasis on blockbusters and opening weekends, the only art of acting remaining is in live theatre on Broadway. She feels threatened by his encroachment on her turf, and she’s going to make sure she breaks him. On the one hand, she’s an incredible bitch who you want to see struck by a taxi just outside the bar. On the other…there’s truth in what she says. I love superhero movies. I love them. But what are we missing because of it? Could a Stanley Kubrick find an audience today? What slips between the cracks because it won’t play at a multiplex? Even within superhero movies, “Amazing Spider-Man 2” comes across as a weak performer because it “only” made $730 million worldwide. What does that say about where things are headed? According to the fictional critic, it spells doomsday.
The other speech that left us as viewers, and the characters on the screen, speechless was earlier in the film, where Emma Stone’s character so completely eviscerates her father that even she’s shocked at what she says. It boils down to the irrelevance of Riggan Thomson, but goes beyond that to include the irrelevance of all of us. Why do we matter? To us, to our families and friends, to the world? Is it in what we produce? Is it our passions, our lives, our tweets? In both the words she says and her angry, passionate delivery, she undoes her father, and pushes him closer to that edge.
Several times before, during, and after the movie, I thought “only Michael Keaton could star in this movie.” I stand by that. Those layers of history and relevance of the actor underline everything his character says, everything he does. That doesn’t mean the story is just about Michael Keaton. In key scenes when Riggan Thomson is alone, he hears the voice of “Birdman.” The gruff, Batman-voiced character mocks Riggan, teases him, pushes him along the path to destruction by reminding him of the apex of his past, and the failures of his present. I think all of us have that voice. What did we want in our past? Did we get it? Have we lost it? Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s money, maybe it’s being a high school athlete or the head of a sorority. Was that the high point of our lives? Is it just a downward slope from here until the end? Riggan’s Birdman tells him that the only way to find happiness again is to put on the suit again. Riggan tries to find another way to success, to happiness, to peace. The beauty of “Birdman” to me is that we all have those doubts and regrets in our past–and we can move past them.