When you’re an artist, there’s always an idealistic side of yours and you won’t be satisfied by just making a pile of money. It’s even harder if you’re a perfectionist. You just have to do it your way, or it’s ruined.
That is Riggan (Michael Keaton), a senior actor famously known for his role as Birdman. His current work (as writer, director and actor) is a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love“, a project he hopes to be his big comeback. His inner voice (Birdman) often criticize him when he’s alone. Riggan often imagine himself having superpowers like the Birdman, like telekinesis and levitation.
When one of the actor is injured (Riggan thought it was caused by his superpower), they immediately found a professional replacement, Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), which done his performance brilliantly in the preview. Mike manipulated Lesley (Naomi Watts) by provoking her emotionally to create more realistic acting, which outraged Lesley. Meanwhile, Riggan’s other conflicts like his secret lover appears, Laura (Andrea Riseborough) flirts with him in between the previews, said she’s pregnant. Riggan’s teenage daughter, Sam (Emma Stone), a former drug addict having her rebel phase, hanging around in the building hating her existence and especially her father who was never around for her.
You’re doing this because you’re scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don’t matter. And you know what? You’re right. You don’t. It’s not important.After his inner-negativity and investing all his energy to his play, Riggan found out that Mike purposely steal his spotlight when he sees Mike in the newspaper headline. He also accidentally sees Mike and Sam kissing. With his ‘Birdman’ keep talking him out of his ‘idealistic’ work, meeting newspaper critic who hates ‘Hollywood celebrities who pretend to be actors’ or what she thought of him, and all the drama pushes Riggan to the edge. His latest work might be his failure extension. Or might the big achievement he’s looking for.
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I remember Debra Messing (Actress – Will & Grace) once said in her magazine interview, more or less; “There’s nothing more theatrical than reality/real life.” Perhaps she’s right, real life is theatrical, even in deserted moments. In this movie, it’s an emotional ride of Riggan towards the launch of his current work, where he battles with his inner critic. It’s a search for approval, like Sam said, to feel relevant.
Many of us search for approvals, for certain things we done and mostly bought, to create some sorts of image and a portrayal of ourselves. But like most of things, everything needs balance. Doing it too much can cause an unnecessary large amount of stress. Approvals sometimes and mostly is a false happiness. But in the end it is you who decide if it’s worth it.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) might be one of the best 2014 released movie I’ve seen, in terms of how it was shot and how the delivered message felt like a slap in the face. The emotions felt amazingly realistic, mainly caused by how the shooting manipulation to feel like it was taken continuously, the awesome performances by the actors, the drama and twists and the music, and also the superpowers (also felt realistic). I couldn’t help but give salute to Alejandro González Iñárritu (to think I disliked his previous movie, Biutiful).
Michael Keaton have taken this role under his wing, as an older actor in between falling to failure and reaching for success. But not just that, he also struggles for his other life role as a father, ex-husband and lover. He struggles for his existence as a man, but his attempt stand in between his relationship with his daughter, Sam and his marriage. He also feels the toughness it is to work in a competitive industry, where other actors can easily steal the attention he wants and critics can turn what in the reality is great to be junk (I just realized how harsh critics/movie bloggers can be and how it must feels for the actors/moviemakers if we review them hard). I don’t know if it happens to be coincidence how Michael Keaton did play Birdman before, or as we know, Batman.
If there’s one bold supporting actor in it, it’s Edward Norton. He makes me wonder can he be like Mike who can manipulate situation to create better performance. One can wonder if his method is genius or evil. He’s quite outstanding in here. Other supporting actors were giving strong performances as well, like Emma Stone, I think Sam is the best acting performance she’s ever given. And, also Andrea Riseborough, who I loved before in Madonna’s W.E (2011).
If there’s anything I disliked from the movie was maybe there’s too much drama in one point, that it can be exhausting (especially when it appears to be taken shot continuously). Some twist additions feels like just to spice the situation but unnecessary since it was already conflicted. But thankfully, the climax washed it away. I do love how Birdman create such lively and unpretentious situations, but is it indeed fictional. It’s also interesting to feel the high and low atmosphere behind a play and the drama behind the stage. I also love the drum backsound. But the biggest factor why I loved this movie is how it showed how we should conquer our inner critic, no matter how hard it pushes us.
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Note (Spoilers – Highlight the text if you have seen the movie) : I disliked and was confused how Riggan might be ending his life on purpose (a desperate act to might be ending his stress), however he still alive in the end shows how he’s given another chance. This isn’t my intention to free your mind, but more of picking your battles of which to stress about.
