The opening of Birdman finds washed-up Hollywood actor Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) on the verge of either triumph or fiasco. It’s been two decades since he last played winged superhero Birdman, a role that made him a celebrity, but has now reduced him to “an answer to a Trivial Pursuit question.” Riggan has come to Broadway to direct and star in Raymond Carver adaptation he wrote, a prestige project that he hopes will both resurrect his career and atone for its crass commercialism. The Birdman has other ideas: Riggan’s old persona grumbles in his ear, spitting abuses and exhorting him to embrace his inner hack. This voice might be a hallucination, but what about the telekinetic powers Riggan exhibits when he's alone?
The surreal, satirical Birdman marks a conspicuous shift in the works of Mexican writer-director Alejandro González Iñárritu, best known for sprawling, multifaceted tragedies. In comparison, Birdman is a relentlessly focused film, a voyeuristic scramble through Riggan’s troubled production as opening night approaches. Iñárritu takes a striking formal approach to this tale, stitching together cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s gorgeous long takes so that the entire feature seems composed of a single shot. Along with the score’s restless jazz percussion, this lends Birdman a sense of frantic momentum and a touch of vérité, the latter complementing its magical realism and arch, pitch-black humor.
Despite the savage jabs it makes at show business—especially at actors’ bottomless craving for validation—Birdman never seems mean-spirited. The parallels between Riggan and Keaton’s careers are obvious, but the film has ambitions beyond knocking around its leading man. Birdman spotlights the challenges of eliciting the love of others, balancing pragmatism and idealism, and recognizing one’s own successes. It asks, as distraught actress Lesley (Naomi Watts) wails: How do you know when you’ve made it?
Birdman opens Friday, October 24 at the Landmark Tivoli Theatre (6350 Delmar, 314-727-7271) and the Plaza Frontenac Cinema (1701 S Lindbergh, 314-994-3733).
