Film review: Birdman - Michael Keaton soars in showbiz satire
Let us first concede that Birdman — whose pompous full title is Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) — is indeed flashy and narcissistic. A technical showcase that appears fully conscious of its own virtuosity, its makers flaunt its overacting frolics, tricky cinematography and an unrelenting jazzy music track as if this is all a game of showmanship.
Starring: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Category: IIB
Let us first concede that Birdman — whose pompous full title is Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) — is indeed flashy and narcissistic. A technical showcase that appears fully conscious of its own virtuosity, its makers flaunt its overacting frolics, tricky cinematography and an unrelenting jazzy music track as if this is all a game of showmanship.
What's more remarkable still is Alejandro González Iñárritu's feat of shaping all these outlandish elements into one delightful masterpiece. After a run of sorrowful dramas, including 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006) and Biutiful (2010), the Mexican writer-director's first attempt at black comedy is a New York-set showbiz satire that is at once human and larger than life.
Iñárritu has Michael Keaton to thank for lending not just an awards-winning performance but also his credentials as a former superhero to feed the imagination of older film geeks.
In the same year that the actor signed off as the Dark Knight with Batman Returns (1992), the character he plays in this film, Riggan Thomson, turned down the chance to star in another sequel of the Birdman blockbuster franchise.
Desperate to jump-start his career, Riggan, now a has-been actor, has mortgaged the house meant for his fresh-out-of-rehab daughter Sam (Emma Stone) to finance a Raymond Carver theatrical adaptation for which he's the writer, director and star. A vanity project if ever there was one, Riggan's stint at the historic St James Theatre in Times Square turns out to be a magnet for trouble.