"Birdman" or (the unexpected virtue of ignorance)

Title: Birdman or (the unexpected virtue of ignorance)
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Writer: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolàs Giacobone, Alexander Dineralis and Armando Bo
Category: Comedy, Drama
Duration: 119 min
Rate:

"So you see the future?" "Yeah!" (slaps him real hard) "How about that Ah...Did you see that coming?"

This particular movie already won several awards and is nominated for 9 Oscars for this award season and I will have to say that most of them are well deserved.

The story follows Riggan Thomson, once a famous blockbuster movie star who now is desperately trying to do something different with both is career and his life. His coming back to stardom is a Broadway play about love and not being forgotten, making this movie a play within a play. What is being portrayed on the stage is exactly what Riggan is going through. In a series of tragicomic event we learn and discover all the doubts and expectations he has. He desperately wants to be remembered not for the superhero role that made him famous, but as a talented and deep actor who is more than just a polished puppet at the mercy of labels, photographers and critics. Throughout the movie, Riggan is not only being hunted by his lawyer-producer and his fellow actors, who are waiting to receive instructions from him, since he is the lead, writer and director of the play, but also by his family as well, with a troubled recovering addict daughter with whom he desperately wants to reconnect but hates him deeply and his girlfriend and fellow actress in the play that goes from devotion to indifference towards him throughout the movie. However, what is really pulling him behind and trapping him in this miserable spiral of despair and depression is the shadow of his past glory, which is portrayed by himself as the Birdman, the superhero role that brought him success.

This powerful voice inside his head, that later will be physically represented as well, is making him think about how easy it could be if, instead of trying to be a sophisticated actor, he would return to his past glory as a blockbuster movie star, because there is nothing easier in Hollywood than to make money as the star of a superhero movie.

Iñárritu's project is an ambitious one. The choice to make it appear as if the movie was shot in a single shot makes it even more challenging, however it gives something more to it. I personally felt more connected with the story because of the way it was shot. The poignant feeling of being afraid of disappearing, not leaving your mark in this world is hunting Riggan. His need for success and love is always present in every conversation. The single shot made me feel the anguish and anxiety felt by the main character, it made me feel in a way part of the story as well.

Even though the comedy aspect is ever present, intertwine with it there are also tragic emotions: fear, insecurity, the need for recognition.

All the cast members did an amazing job in their roles, the ones who stood out for me where Emma Stone, who completely lost her usual bright and cheerful self in order to portray her tortured character, Michael Keaton, who made this tough character seems effortless to portray and Edward Norton, who was so easy to despise and I believe that all three of them deserve their Oscar nomination.

Moreover, what I particularly loved about Birdman was how the director described the conflicted relationship between actors or directors and critics. Tabitha Dickinson, the influential critic who wants only to bring Riggan and his play down, and her relationship with Riggan represent the need for Hollywood to receive praise and also how frightening a flop in this world can be. I don't really know if Iñárritu's opinion is reflected in Riggan's actions, however, I found funny how often in movies you can discover how the critics is considered by the movie industry, how they depend on their opinions, but wish they didn't. How far they would go to satisfy them or prove them wrong, as Riggan did with his last desperate action to prove his point to Tabitha.

All in all, Birdman is a different movie that succeeds in its attempt to show how Hollywood seems like this spectacular and polished world while in reality is a place that could eat you alive right after praising you.

Till next time,

Fred

Here the trailer: