“How did we end up here? This place is horrible,” questions Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) to himself, his ego in his head growing louder. He was once “Birdman” the high-flying caped crusader in his previous life as a super hero. And with that opening you can’t help but recognize the situation mirrors Keaton (now aged 63) and his real life as the Batman in the Tim Burton films of the 80s/early 90s before he chose to be taken seriously, and then disappeared from movie screens.
Poking fun at Robert Downey Jr. as “Iron Man”, and Jeremy Renner as an Avenger, Keaton’s character decides to invest his life savings (what’s left of them) into being taken seriously as a Broadway star. He’ll direct, write and star is Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and he’s found his co-star in Ed Norton. (Further irony of washed up careers.) Norton plays an overly controlling, angry actor, with sharp wit and sharp tongue, similar to what lost him his own real life career. There’s a moment where amid the risk and chaos, Keaton questions whether he “should have done that reality show.”
Behind the scenes, and behind the fallen curtain of a stage is where the real drama takes place in this movie that stars Naomi Watts waiting in the wings for her big break. There’s Emma Stone as the estranged and just-out-of-drug-rehab daughter, and Keaton’s leading Lady Andrea Riseborough. The show all rests on the shoulders of the producer played by Zach Gailifianakis.
At times the film feels like the Nicolas Cage and Spike Jonz film Adaptation based on Susan Orlean’s book “The Orchid Thief”, about a screenwriter desperate to figure out how to adapt the book. But this film focuses on the ego of the artist. And the cruelty of the theatre critic. [having myself been on both sides: Critic and author…I could relate to the juxtaposition and authority of both, though the artist is truly in it for the art, not the agenda of not having the talent and falling back on criticism as the cynical critic might. I believe the best critics of film, books and stage are those who have written films, books, and stage themselves. They are agenda-free.]
In this, the nemesis is the critic of the New York Times threatening to badly review his show because she feels Keaton’s character is merely a celebrity and not an actor. Can a super hero be taken seriously? If your Michael Keaton in this role, the answer is ‘yes’. It took guts to do this film. He’s vanity-free, hair free (he’s close to bald) yet full of crow’s feet. All of the acting by the entire cast is outstanding and certainly worthy of recognition come Oscar season. As “Birdman” Keaton soars again.