I was particularly concerned as Birdman seemed to set out to be a self-mocking pompous wank of a film about actors who think they’re just so bloody clever.
But then a funny thing happened, and I’m not just talking about the film itself which actually is very funny in a self-deprecating subtle sort of way. It got me. Sucked me right in. Sure, Birdman is a self-mocking pompous wank of a film, but it goes way deeper than that.
There’s a great blurring of acting and real life that goes way beyond the fact that Michael Keaton played Batman (here he was once Birdman) and he hasn’t had a leading role for six years. Every actor in the film is amazingly good, playing actors not only performing in a play but performing in a different way in the “real” film world too. When the worlds collide the consequences are, ironically enough, dramatic.
Meanwhile, Michael Keaton’s Riggan Thomas is tormented by his Birdman alter ego and his desperate attempts to be relevant to himself and his family.
Birdman is a film that works on so many levels. It is a genuinely adult film (not in a porn way though even that is touched upon so to speak). Even the film making, edited to resemble a single take from a single hand-held camera for the entire film, draws you in and emphasises that something special and different is happening here that you need to experience.
