Birdman—Movie Review

by Peter J. O'Connell

Birdman. Released: Nov. 14, 2014. Runtime: 119 mins. Rated: R for language throughout, some sexual content and brief violence.  

Birdman soars! This movie about the producing of a play will be hard to top for any future filmmakers of behind-the-scenes-comedies. Birdman's top-notch script, direction and acting mix familiar memes with offbeat approaches to provide a consistently amusing, piquantly unpredictable cinematic experience. A standing “O” is definitely owed to director/co-writer Alejandro Gonzalez Inirritu.

Birdman gives us a few days in the life of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton). Riggan is an actor who was enormously popular 20 years ago for playing the superhero “Birdman” in three movies—but he walked away from that role and has faded and developed family troubles and self-doubts since then. Now he is attempting to resolve his combined career/family/(post-)midlife crisis by writing, directing, co-starring in and co-producing a Broadway play based on Raymond Carver's short story “What We Mean When We Talk About Love” (an actual story). 

To get the play through to its debut, Riggan has to deal with one professional or personal problem after another cast his way by his nervous co-producer (Zach Galifianakis), tempermental actors (Jeremy Stamos, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts), bisexual girlfriend (also one of the actors) (Laura Riseborough), demanding ex-wife (Amy Ryan), drug-addled daughter (Emma Stone) and nasty theater critic (Lindsay Duncan). From time to time, Riggan also derives both criticism and advice from the character he once played, Birdman himself. 

This touch of the Latin American technique of “magical realism” by Gonzalez Inirritu, a Mexican, provides some striking moments. In a sense, though, Gonzalez Inirritu's whole method is both “magical” and “realistic.” His use of close-ups, long takes, fast-moving camera plunge viewers into the action and keep things moving in an almost propulsive way while thoroughly immersing the viewers in what is, essentially, a single set, a theatre. The “action” is mostly dialogue, sometimes inspired wit, but there are some hilarious scenes of physical comedy, particularly one in which Riggan has to make his way through a crowded Times Square while clad only in “tighty-whiteys.”

A delightful aspect of Birdman is its frequent oblique, or not-so-oblique, connections between its characters and actors and the careers of the movie's actual performers or other real persons. For example: Michael Keaton's Batman roles and Riggan's Birdman roles; the notable girl-on-girl kiss by Naomi Watts in 1999's Mulholland Drive and the one she provides here; Edward Norton's reputed abrasiveness on set and that of his actor character here; Emma Stone's character made up to resemble Lindsay Lohan.

Many things are talked about in Birdman—illusion and reality, art and audiences, creativity and criticism, family and foul-ups, murder and suicide, and, of course, love and, yes, sex. But what is the meaning of the talk? Maybe it's that life is a show that can go on despite difficulties—if we learn the “lines” that fate gives us and perform as well as we can. Then we may find that we acquire the power and pride to act as a superhero every day.