movie review: Birdman

Birdman tries to be all things to all movie-goers, and despite this schizophrenic ambition, it mostly succeeds in at least entertaining us. It's an art film, it's a commercial film, it's a comedy, it's a drama, it's an exercise in self-referentialism, it's an insider look at showbiz, and it is probably the only movie in existence that has explosions, super-powers, a Shakespearean soliloquy, and an assumption that its audience is at least vaguely familiar with the work of Raymond Carver.

Much has been made of the casting of Michael Keaton in the lead role, as both the actor and his character, Riggan Thomson, are using a serious project to A) prove that he's got acting chops, and B) make a comeback after his career has gone downhill after turning down the sequel in a superhero film series. To those critics obsessed with the parallels (i.e., apparently all of them) between Keaton and Thomson, I'd argue that Riggan has a lot more to prove in these regards than Keaton does. Yes, Keaton has never achieved the same spotlight he had when he was playing Batman, but on the other hand, he never had a career slump that he had to come back from, either. His work, from his supporting role in Jackie Brown to his directorial effort with The Merry Gentleman, has (perhaps unintentionally) eschewed the spotlight, but consistently earned the respect of critics.

But I digress. Birdman -- sub-titled The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, for reasons that remain unexplained for the vast majority of the film -- stars Keaton as Riggan Thomson, a has-been actor who hit it big in the early 90s as the title superhero character, but whose career never recovered after he refused to reprise the role in the proposed Birdman 4. Two decades later, Riggan is back, hoping to prove his value as an actor with What we Talk About When we Talk About Love, a stage adaptation and expansion of the Carver short story. It's an ambitious undertaking, as Riggan is the director, playwright, and star, and is, perhaps unrealistically, co-producing the project with his lawyer (a skillfully, mostly understated Zach Galifinakis).  Birdman shows us only two of the scenes of the play in detail, and the filmmakers deserve some kind of kudos for making me wish I could see the whole play.

Riggan can be self-absorbed and selfish (if you can appreciate the distinction) at times, but he is basically a good guy. He's surrounded by people who are so thoroughly unlikable that, in contrast, Riggan himself comes across as even more sympathetic than he perhaps as a right to.

One of those three people is Riggan's own daughter (Emma Stone). Employed as Riggan's personal assistant, Sam Thomson seems to have never outgrown the teenage "rebel without a cause" phase, and her cynicism is matched only by a hatred for her father that is beyond all reason. Why does she bother to work for him if she hates him so? She can't explain it, any more than she can adequately explain why she hates him in the first place, after an actor in the production asks her point-blank, "what did he ever do to you?"

Edward Norton co-stars as Mike Shiner, an actor whose celebrity and genuine talent is matched only by his unprofessionalism, and his eagerness to stab anybody and everybody in the back, apparently just for the hell of it. His presence in the cast of When we Talk About Love creates a real dilemma for Riggan, as Shiner's celebrity pulls in much-needed tickets, but he's also the kind of guy who might disrupt a live performance because the gin (to use an example) in the stage glasses is actually water, and thus disrupts the "realism." It's hard to think of a single character whom Shiner doesn't screw over at one point or another.

Then there's Tabitha, a theater critic who has a small role in the film, but whose personality turns out to be so full of dishonesty, sadism, and self-righteousness that if she had been in even one more scene, she'd qualify as the villain. She's depicted as so awful that, in contrast, even the otherwise despicable Shiner comes across as honest-to-god noble when the two characters meet.

Despite all of these unlikable people, Birdman itself is mostly a likable film. We find ourselves caring about both Riggan and his dilemmas. There are moments that are funny, moments that are insightful, and moments that are just plain interesting. There are aspects of the movie that I admired, but that I can't get into without spoiling important plot points. All I can do is recommend the movie, and observe once again that if they ever actually proceed with making this particular stage version of Carver's story, I'd wanna buy tickets.