‘Birdman’ is an electric acting masterclass
It’s both ironic and telling that a film aggressively mocking modern Hollywood and modern “prestige” films is one of the most critically-acclaimed American films of recent years, and a major contender for Hollywood’s vain “awards”. Birdman is a film which tells an important story about Hollywood and wants to be recognised as an “important” satire of the film and theatre industries, but knows in its heart that- largely due to writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s previous success at the Academy Awards etc.- it will most likely become one of the films it attempts to satirise.
The brilliant, unique meta tone of the film begins with Michael Keaton’s very casting as Riggan Thomson: a character almost identical to himself. Keaton performance is at first amusingly self-aware, but gradually increases in heart and profundity until Thomson’s Shakespearean series of enlightenments and breakdowns begin. Thomson was once the star of the billion-dollar “Birdman” franchise, but since turning down “Birdman 4” (as Keaton did with Batman Forever) has become somewhat “washed-up”. Iñárritu’s Birdman focuses on Thomson’s Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, the supporting cast of which are played by Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough and- in perhaps the film’s standout performance- Edward Norton. Where Keaton brings the essential integrity and experienced presence, Norton embodies on screen the film’s core cynicism and wit. Watching Norton acting as an actor grappling with a text in Birdman taught me more about acting that i’ve ever learnt before. If anyone in Birdman’s cast has a serious chance of winning awards, it’s probably (and deservedly) Norton. However, while his role is the most fun, Keaton’s is the most difficult, and is the finest example of an actor vulnerably exposing their true persona on screen in many years. Naomi Watts is, for once, cast as a very sympathetic character, while Emma Stone is unusually unlikeable in a poorly-written role as Thomson’s daughter- one of the film’s few key problems.
The acting is great and the screenplay, a collaboration between Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo, is beyond superb. The highlight of Birdman by far, however, is the spectacular cinematography by the great Emmanuel Lubezki. Birdman appears to be shot in two takes (there are very subtle cuts, usually to identify the passing of time), one of which lasts over 90 minutes and makes Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, also shot by Lubezki, look frankly pathetic. The gimmicks that Gravity employed have, thanks to both Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and now Birdman, become somewhat irrelevant, and that film is unlikely to stand the test of time as one would have expected upon its release. Birdman, meanwhile, is sure to be shown for years to come as an example of what is possible if one has a camera, good actors, a strong script and a story to tell. Birdman explores its deeply relevant themes on entertainment, art and intellect in a manner that is as accessible as it is intelligent. Where it fails on multiple occasions is when it makes attempts at broad humour (eg. Norton getting an erection on stage, much of what Zach Galifianakis’ under-utilised, misused character does) in order to be “laugh-out-loud funny”. It’s a more subtle kind of humour that this film needs, and when it tries this it is brilliant. Possibly the best sequence in the film (although the film is essentially one sequence) sees Thomson walk through Times Square in his underwear as a crowd of thousands gathers around him. It is simple visual comedy at its best and Keaton is one of the actors in Hollywood most qualified to be at the centre of the mayhem.
Where the film unfortunately loses a substantial amount of momentum is in its final act, when Iñárritu takes some major risks- namely bringing the Birdman character onscreen as a LEGO Movie Batman sort of figure- that don’t entirely pay off and destroy the subtle elements of fantasy that are dotted throughout the earlier part of the film (Thomson using telekinesis to move objects).
Michael Keaton’s performance in Birdman may or may not win him an Oscar, but as long as the Academy voters simply watch Iñárritu’s smart, masterfully-directed film, they will learn a thing or two about what they’re doing with their careers. Birdman is both a film Hollywood wants and the film they need.
