Birdman (2014)
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Birdman Movie Review
Birdman is a 2014 black comedy film directed by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu and starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton. It’s a solid, but overrated movie.
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“People, they love blood. They love action.
Not this talky, depressing, philosophical bullshit“
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Former cinema superhero Riggan Thomson is mounting an ambitious Broadway production that he hopes will breathe new life into his stagnant career. It’s risky, but he hopes that his creative gamble will prove that he’s a real artist and not just a washed-up movie star. As opening night approaches, a cast mate is injured, forcing Riggan to hire an actor who is guaranteed to shake things up. Meanwhile, he must deal with his girlfriend, daughter and ex-wife.
This is basically a satire of washed-up actors and the current state of Hollywood with the superhero craze. It touches on art versus commercialism, but in my opinion it did not explore this issue particularly well as it never takes any side nor does it give any message to us. The movie is thus thematically rich, especially when it comes to the theme of older actors, but again it only skims all of those themes on a surface level.
Michael Keaton is excellent in what is truly his career-greatest performance. He was an obvious choice given that he faded into the background after his ‘Batman’ days, but sometimes obvious is the best as he fits the role like a glove and thus he delivered a truly terrific, scene-stealing work in a complex role. He very much deserved his Oscar nomination.
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The same goes for other two deserved nominees. Edward Norton is excellent and a lot of fun in his role and I loved the fighting between the two as well as his relationship with Emma Stone’s character. She is also terrific here in one of her earlier showcases where she showed everyone that she can be a serious, respectable actress. Others are all solid, but much less utilized.
The film is tonally rich as it’s both comedic and dramatic. Though some of those amusing elements worked, others were insufferable and rather annoying in tone and approach. The dramatic elements, especially the emotional scenes worked for the most part. The imaginary fantastical sequences are also solidly executed, but the ambiguity to this whole movie, and especially its ending did not really work for me as it felt like an easy way out, a cop-out for sure.
Birdman is famous for its Oscar-winning cinematography and I am personally not a fan. This is simply no ‘Rope’. Yes, the ambition is admirable, but sometimes it felt obviously forced to continue using the one-take approach when the script demanded more takes. Also, the action/walking moments all felt oddly filmed to me.
The film earned whopping ten Oscar nominations, and it won four awards. I personally find it overrated and certainly not deserving of all those nominations, even the technical ones. I am talking about the sound nods which were not earned as the sound isn’t all that amazing here and the score can be aggressively repetitive.
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I found the acting nods all very much deserved, but the movie had no business winning Best Picture and Best Director as ‘Boyhood’ was a much better movie this year whereas Inarritu himself had so many better movies before, and the Academy only honored his weakest ones. The screenplay could have been better, though it is interesting. And the dialogue is great throughout, but it has too much needless cursing for sure.
Birdman is a solid, but very overrated movie. Its one-take approach at cinematography simply felt forced more than once, and ‘Rope’ did it way better. Edward Norton and Emma Stone are both excellent whereas Michael Keaton gave his career-greatest performance in this role that was pretty much made for him. I did like its themes a lot, but it only touches the surface and rarely truly explores them. The movie is admirably ambitious, but wildly uneven in execution. It’s thus far from Inarritu’s best.
