Review: ‘Birdman’

If, like me, you’ve begun to lose hope that Hollywood is capable of making original, intelligent and innovative films, Birdman will restore your faith. It’s a black comedy that examines the nature of celebrity and the way fame can overshadow even the greatest artistic achievement. It never takes the expected path – it’s also the best film I’ve seen in a very long time.

Michael Keaton, in a self-referential turn, plays Riggan, the former action star of a superhero film franchise called Birdman. He’s desperate for a comeback, but unwilling to sign on for the long-awaited Birdman 4. He’s on Broadway instead, days away from opening his own adaptation of a Raymond Carver story. We meet Riggan in his dressing room as he takes a moment to meditate before attacking another rehearsal. This would seem natural enough – but Riggan is meditating three feet from the floor. A poster of Birdman graces his dressing room wall, showing us that Riggan knows he’ll always be Birdman. In fact, Birdman’s voice echoes in his head at inopportune moments, like the devil sitting on his shoulder.

When the play’s other male lead is spectacularly knocked out just before previews begin, one of the female leads convinces her superstar boyfriend, Mike Shiner, to step into the role – with everyone very aware of the box office boost his name will bring. But his first rehearsal goes badly and Shiner’s presence, divo-esque demeanour and heavy drinking unsettle the entire ensemble and an already unnerved Riggan.

As if he didn’t have enough to contend with, Riggan’s assistant (his just-out-of-rehab daughter) constantly bags him for not joining social media to prop up his sagging profile. And one of Riggan’s leading ladies – who he’s been having a rather unenthusiastic relationship with – announces she’s pregnant.

This film is ostensibly a farce, full of secret liaisons, pranks and misunderstandings. Yet it is a far richer experience than the farcical trappings suggest. Riggan’s quest to regain control of his life, career and self-respect leads to explorations of the nature of fame and the way the public’s perception of an event can change it.

The innovative soundtrack is almost entirely jazz drumming, which takes away the aural cues we’ve come to expect from filmmakers telling us what to think and feel, leaving us to interpret scenes on our own. The camerawork is outstanding too, with the film appearing to play out as a single long shot  until the very end. When the camera catches an actor moving in and out of doorways and through halls, it almost feels like luck they caught them at all.

In a life-imitating-art moment, Keaton reemerges from relative obscurity with his brilliant performance. He embraces his thinning hair and sagging skin, fully capturing the beaten-down nature of someone who has struggled for a long time to make something worthwhile. Norton is his equal as the bad-boy actor whose cocky egocentricity masks giant insecurities. Even Naomi Watts (a limited actress in my view) manages not to suck.

Birdman is brave, smart, original, funny and deep. It goes places few mainstream films dare and it does so with style and panache. Just go see it!

10/10

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