ENCORE!!: a review of "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)"

"BIRDMAN or (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE)"
Screenplay Written by Alejandro Gonzalez Innarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexandar Dinelaris Jr. & Armando Bo
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
**** (four stars)

Welcome to the vibrant theater of the mind or an artistic life of tumultuous anxiety or even both occurring simultaneously.

"Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)," the latest film from Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, is far and away one of 2014's highest achievements. It represents not only a career peak for Inarritu, who has already delivered the wrenching, puzzlebox dramatic features "21 Grams" (2003) and "Babel" (2006), but also for Michael Keaton who digs deeply and soars in a role that seemed to just be waiting for the perfect time to enter Keaton's creative life.

Awards season is tailor made for a film like this one, as far as I am concerned, as it not only displays a level of cinematic excellence that cannot be ignored, it is also one of those films that forces you to re-think exactly what the moves can actually be from storytelling structure, cinematography, a nearly live theatricality to the performances all the way to the film's innovative drum score by Composer Antonio Sanchez, "Birdman" is high wire, virtuoso filmmaking that is as story driven as it is psychologically harrowing and euphorically self-congratulatory. And hey, if you are able to pull off making a film as well as Alejandro  Gonzalez Inarritu has just accomplished, you would be crowing too...and as well as you would so richly deserve. BRAVO!!

"Birdman" explores the creative and increasingly fractured mind of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), a now struggling actor who once ruled the box office as the titular hero of the "Birdman" superhero movies before leaving the franchise after the third installment. Now 20 years later, Riggan hopes to re-invent and completely revitalize his acting career and cultural relevance with a Broadway adaptation of the Raymond Carver story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, an undertaking Riggan is writing, directing and acting in himself.

If only it were remotely that simple.

Throughout the troubled production and progressively turbulent preview performances, Riggan is confronted by the ferocious spirit of his daughter Sam (Emma Stone), who is now working as Riggan's assistant while recovering from drug addiction in addition to the vehement demands of the ferociously aggressive actor and rival Mike Shiner (an extraordinary Edward Norton) who consistently challenges Riggan's sense of artistic authenticity, re-writes Riggan's dialogue and is within near id levels of sexual activity towards Lesley (Naomi Watts), an actress in the play, as well as with Riggan's daughter.

Further complicating matters are Jake (Zach Galifianakis), Riggan's overly anxious best friend/attorney, actress and Riggan's girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough), who just may be pregnant and the vitriolic rage of theater critic Tabitha (Lindsay Duncan), who despises movie stars attempting to pass themselves off as legitimate actors and pledges to destroy Riggan's play with her review, regardless of the actual quality.

And then, there's the matter of Riggan's inner voice, the growling demon of Birdman (voiced by Keaton) who taunts and torments our hero into unhinged flights of fantasy, threatening to unravel Riggan completely.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Birdman," while functioning as a blistering dark comedy and almost harrowing backstage drama, transcends those genres and scales to new heights as Inarritu has fashioned what could be a dissertation about success and failure in the 21st century, a cultural commentary about the nature of reality in the Twitter age, the inspirational and destructive uses of the ego and hubris, plus the validity and existence (or even non-existence) of art during a period when superheroes and toys rule the day, making all of the characters in the film to all of us sitting in the audience complicit in our artistic and societal downfall.

Inarritu has fashioned a film that feels equal parts the savage self-laceration of Director Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz" (1979), the high artistic hopes and ambitions that threaten to crumble into crippling failure in Writer/Director Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" (2008) and the hallucinogenic psychological madness of Director Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" (2010) while carving out fresh new cinematic territory of its own and the effect is breathlessly exhilarating.

There is absolutely no way to even begin describing this film to you without giving mention to Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki who seriously deserves any awards attention that is more than certain to be showered in his direction.  The ecstatic visual presentation of "Birdman" is one of seamless fluidity as Inarritu and Lubezki have delivered a film that is created out of a series of long takes, sequences of film that are completely unbroken with any editing. Certainly, there must have been some edits within this film, but the entire experience of the "Birdman" looks as if the complete two hours was performed in one unaltered shot!

Inarritu takes us from Riggan's dressing room, which is at times altered through his telekinetic delusions of grandeur, to the stage, to throughout the theater and into the streets of New York City and back again with an elegant, pristine flow that gives "Birdman" an increased sense of urgency combined with the feeling that we are indeed watching a live play, yet filtered through the language of cinema. You watch the film knowing fully well that if even one element was out of place--from any flubbed lines of dialogue to even background actors not being in the right spot at the right time--that the entire sequence would be ruined thus forcing every single participant to do it all over again. No editing coverage is available whatsoever, creating a heightened intensity to what we are viewing and believe me, dear readers, it is electrifying movie-making.

While there may be some that might feel that Inarritu is just showing off, I wouldn't necessarily disagree but I do think that it is entirely purposeful for the reasons I just described. Additionally, I do think that he is quite possibly using his techniques and cinematic razzle dazzle to give a fraternal poke in the creative ribs of both Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron, filmmakers who have shared a deep friendship and artistic partnership with Inarritu. For del Toro, Inarritu may be imploring him to put away the comic books of "Hellboy" (2004) and box up the mega robots of "Pacific Rim" (2013) for more triumphant and riveting artistic pursuits like "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006). And as for Curaon, who has already displayed his own virtuoso usage of the long, unbroken, unedited sequences in both "Children Of Men" (2006) and "Gravity" (2013), Inarritu may be using "Birdman" as one mighty trump card! If the act of "showing off" forces filmmakers to raise their own personal creative bars and force themselves to push themselves in new invigorating ways through healthy competition, then so be it as the results, if handled well, are just as invigorating to witness.

All of this praise leads me, of course, to Michael Keaton, an actor I fell instantly in love with through his razor sharp comic performance in Director Ron Howard's "Night Shift" (1982), so explosively vibrant that he all but leapt from the screen and out into the audience. Despite his lengthy career and some very strong work in films like Director Glenn Gordon Caron's "Clean And Sober" (1988), Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" (1997) and of course, Director Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989) I always felt that somehow, Michael Keaton was never quite used to the absolute fullest of his capabilities, thus making him less celebrated of an actor as I always felt that he should have been. Hopefully, "Birdman," like the play inside of the film for Riggan, will remedy this predicament for Keaton handsomely as he is clearly tapping into his own life as an actor, and his time as Batman in particular, to probe into some quite uncomfortable territory about the professional and artistic choices, successes and failures that have brought him to this very moment in time. For Keaton, his performance is as much of a high wire act as Inarritu's filmmaking as the entire escapade could have easily fallen tremendously flat or perhaps Keaton and Inarritu would be so creatively out of step with each other for this film to work properly. Thankfully, Michael Keaton is working in complete lockstep with Inarritu as he delivers a knockout performance that is wholly sympathetic, dangerously funny, and psychologically troubling all in one.

Dear readers, throughout the existence of Savage Cinema I have been trying to urge you to please take chances on movies that are outside of the norm and off of the beaten path. While I have nothing against comic books movies, especially as I am seeing them just like you are, I do have a problem and growing fatigue with their frequency and how they are seemingly being made at the sheer expense of other types of films being made that may not be nearly as lucrative at the box office. "Birdman" speaks precisely to that quandary during this exact point tn time in the history of the movies by giving us a motion picture that is profoundly not one to be experienced passively and it will defiantly not be forgotten once you leave the theater, for better or for worse. For that is exactly what "Birdman" is: an experience! One without capes and superpowers and one that is about the nature of art, life, love, fragility, triumph and despair and one that is presented as if living through a fever dream.

Bold, breathtaking and brilliantly conceived and presented, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)" is one of 2014's very best films.