"BIRDMAN: Or {THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE}" The Film that Soars!
~I do not resort to plot spoilers as I merely seek to put words to my experience of the film while giving nods to the technique of some the individuals involved.~
After TWO days now I have to write something about the haunting film, 'BIRDMAN: Or {The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance}. I cannot stop thinking about this RAVENOUS CREATURE of CINEMATIC ZEITGEIST. As we collectively brace for an onslaught of Superhero Films like nothing we've seen a la the Marvel Age and incoming DC-Counter Attack, maybe one has a tendency to scratch his/her head and wonder, 'WHERE are the films that seem to be aware of this strange melee of bofo-escapist-centric cinema?' It seems no one is taking that perfect opportunity to call out this odd time in film-history. Well have I got a movie for YE! BIRDMAN is part Woody Allan CHARM and part Terry Gillium BIZARRE. There is something so emancipating in the irreverence of the filmmaking tactics here that one is moved to feel some form of an artistic beast being unleashed within it's Director Alejandro Innaritu.
No film in the Year of Their Lord, Two Thousand And Fourteen has been or will be such a force of nature for filmmaking as we know it. By my watch there are two other films this year which managed to shake up audiences with such flare. First is the excellent 'Boyhood' which like Birdman mines a Reality vs Film gimmick, using a humongous twelve-year-long shooting schedule. Boyhood shows us our own slowly decaying innocence in the face of growing knowledge immortalized in a poignant narrative. Secondly we have the mighty 'Whiplash' which sidesteps all manner of gimmickry, pitting two actors squarely against one another to play out the question of how dedicated must an artist be to achieve greatness? Indeed both films arise to tremendous heights. However it is Birdman who rises still higher with what seems to be one Wing as deft at understanding poignant gimmickry as Boyhood ever was and the Other Wing buoyed by the Winds of performances and disturbing psychology equivalent to the seemingly peerless Whiplash.
The strange plot progression is earned by extremely witty, neurotic,and passionate banter elevated to dizzying career best performances by Michael Keaton and Emma Stone. Ed Norton shines brighter than ever as a Stage Actor of pedigree who is a legend in his own make-believe -world. Lindsay Duncan, Zack Galifianakis and Naomi Watts are live wires with scenes that would elevate any movie. And here they are irresistible additions to Birdman's colorful plumage! The cinematography is simply acrobatic {best of the year by far} with super-humanly long takes stitched together to appear as one uninterrupted story that seems to command the passage of time which comprises graceful Dawns and Sunsets. Emmanuel Lubizki is the cinematographer and the one to thank for executing this marvel of an effect which rips the cloth off of the REAL SPECIAL EFFECTS: the heretofore mentioned electrifying performances jumping out all over the place. It is precisely these continuous takes which tear down the wall between actors, filmmakers {all at the top of their game}... and the audience. WE- my fellow jolly voyeurs, are in on the process as well for amid this stretching of what is conventionally comfortable for the actor- there are human mistakes made by thespians which only contribute to a feeling that there is nothing like this been undertaken ever. This inspector is grateful for it.
The set design is a miraculous middle between the ethereal and very real. Which reflects it's protagonist's befuddled attempts to understand what is solid in the world and what is performance. There is delicious Play-Within-A-Play chaos that conjures 'Noises Off' and it is a treat to see this material in the hands of such capable actors. I have gone as far as I can without crediting it's mighty lead. It is the Forgotten-yet-still-Towering Genius of MICHAEL KEATON who's all too close-to-home performance makes this ambitious redemption-obssessed tale take off. His is a story of an embattled man desperately reinventing himself from fallen A-Lister on the brink of sheer MADNESS to starring in a Last-Chance, All-Or-Nothing Broadway show that gives you a flesh and blood blow for blow account of the grudge match of the century: Hollywood VS. Broadway, Nieuw Yorke VS. Los Angeles. Artstic Madness is something to let fly but it is to also an entity unbound by the Earth and therefore something to know when to tether Winner takes home the soul of the POPULOUS! Mayhaps the greatest gift of this stunning film is that we the audience have gone through witnessing Keaton's decades-long slip into obscurity. AND... yet we witness him after TWENTY-ONE YEARS... rising again to deliver on a promise we all assumed he'd made and then... refused: A THIRD KEATON BATMAN FILM. I might add since this is the definitive performance of KEATON'S career... it all but obliterates the first two Batman Films. Indeed it would have been apt to title this picture- 'Birdman Returns'. It is a puissant exercise in 'Super-Realism' much like 'Boyhood' earlier this year where we are witnessing a magic trick being pulled off betwixt reality and fiction. I can think of no subject more poignant in the Film World right now than a story about a HAUNTED Human Being going back to the Stage to wrest his very soul from the clutches of a solipsistic Super Hero.~