'Birdman' A Review

Birdman is an experimental dark comedy about a washed-up actor, famous for playing superhero Birdman twenty years in the past, putting up a Broadway play. The film opens on an image which flashes so quickly it's unclear what it is. Next we see Riggan Thomson(Michael Keaton) in his dressing room before a rehearsal. The film unfolds in what appears to be one unbroken shot, gliding seamlessly through time and space as the week of previews moves inexorably towards opening night. The main focus of the film is the existential artistic crisis of Riggan's: his desire for relevance, his struggle with identity, his testing the limits of his ability.

Keaton gives a masterful performance. Layered, incredibly complicated, and soulful. Like the character he plays there is a question whether or not he is capable of what is being asked of him. He throws himself completely into the role giving us everything he's got. Like the camera he flows from estranged movie-star to pretentious actor to regretful father to insecure artist, sometimes portraying them all at the same time, the fluidity and dimensions he creates are transformative. The other powerful performance is given by Edward Norton as working and craft-driven New York actor Mike Shiner. Norton and Keaton are actors playing actors who act within the film sometimes intentionally badly, other times unintentionally so. Norton's subtlety and volatile emotion bring this, at first, unlikable character into being and we eventually not only root for him but the whole production. Norton and Keaton find such success and depth because their characters are in some ways reflections of their real world personas but the film is anything but autobiographical. The supporting cast is also incredible but isn't given as much to do.

The camera work creates a sense of immediacy, the jazz drummed score a frenetic tempo. The technical elements coupled with the inspired performances foster a very real sense of being with Keaton as he nobly and disastrously navigates this very important week. There is also a light fantasy element to the film, raising questions of Keaton's characters sanity. The conclusions that can be drawn from these divergents are many.

Although maybe not entirely successful Birdman is a daring work of art.

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