It's not often that one walks in and out of a movie a feels like they have seen something they haven't seen before. While this movie has themes that have been explored before, the way it explores them sets it apart. As Roger Ebert used to say, "It doesn't matter what movie is about, but how it's about it." Every moment of this movie crackles with wit and demands to be watched.
The movie covers a variety of human themes from triumph to suicide, from the need to feel accepted by many to the need to only be accepted intimately by one person. Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thompson, a one time famous movie actor who is trying to mount a career revival by producing and starring in a Broadway play. This is vital to him because he feels that he is only known for playing his most famous character, the superhero Birdman. After one of his initial choices for the cast falls apart, he hires a volatile young actor (Edward Norton), who unleashes his own havoc on the production. He does this all while trying to maintain a serious relationship with one of his costars, trying to keep the relationship with his daughter (Emma Stone) from destruction, and hoping to win the favor of a theatre critic whose one goal seems to be to submarine his play. This would come off as pure comedy, but the darkness of the movie lies in the fact that Riggan is tormented by the voice of his alter ego the Birdman, and he sees this play as a deeper attempt to prove to the world and to himself that he is more than just the Birdman.
The plot, interesting as it is, also serves as a launching point for a brilliant exercise in style. Three things stand out immediately about this movie's style:
1) I have never heard a soundtrack quite like this movie's. Much of the movie plays over the rhythms of jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez. For someone like myself for whom melody and harmony are often times more accessible than rhythm, the sounds of the drums in this movie prove a revelation. They are every bit as effective and evocative as any strain of melody that John Williams create. Furthermore, the drums simply fit the plot and content of the movie. Jazz drumming is often a improvisational art that still must be deeply rooted in patterns and timing. In the same way, this movie feels very much like an improvisational work, but clearly the execution of the film took a great deal of planning and work.
2) The setting is every bit as much of a character in the film as any person. As the film is set in NewYork in a theater, every detail we see on screen gives texture to the world that is both otherworldly and deeply set in our world. The paint is chipping in Riggan Thompson's dressing room. The passageways backstage are narrow and claustrophobic. One door could lead to a coffee break room or out into the bustling chaos of Manhattan's Mid Town. The theater is a place of work, and the lack of glamor with which they shot the backstage scenes lends itself to the idea that while what these actors are doing is show business, they are in a workplace which shows the stresses and triumphs of a place of toil.
3) The way that director Alejandro Inarritu weaves his story together is with an active camera that tells a story in an extraordinarily linear fashion. The movie plays as if it is one continuous camera shot. There are several visual tricks that maintain the illusion, and they are executed with craft and wit. This style allows the movie to be paced by the events of what is going on on the screen. There are times of conflict on the screen, but all of these conflicts take place in the workplace for these actors. So, when Edward Norton's character is arguing with his girlfriend (Naomi Watts), it is happening while they are undergoing costume changes, makeup work, or even negotiating the crumpled quarters backstage.
In the end, the movie has a lot to say about the nature of art, and the nature of celebrity. This is a movie which seems to be very much of our time, as cable television and social media make it more and more possible for us to spy on famous people and call it entertainment. This satirical material would be a great movie on its own. However, when we couple that satire with the great human interest story that is to be found in Riggan Thompson's story, it is clear that we are seeing a unique work of cinema. It is hard to not notice the similarities between Riggan and Michael Keaton himself (Keaton played a superhero and only made two films as Batman). I have no idea what Michael Keaton's status as a fulfilled human being is, but he does seem to fit into this role very well. A couple of years ago, I remember asking myself, "What happened to Michael Keaton?" I know he has not totally disappeared, but he has such great talent, and I have felt for awhile that we were missing that. This movie shows him roaring back to the forefront, and it is a welcome reunion with us, his audience.
