Birdman (2014)

User Review

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  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Full of people obsessed with how they portray themselves and how they're judged by the fickle world around them, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 'Birdman,' brilliantly lays bare the absurdity of such concerns to its audience.
  
  The central character is a washed-up ex-superhero actor Riggan (Michael Keaton) who's putting on a play with himself as the lead to make the media and the public see him as a serious actor. He's so obsessed with the rebuilding of his legacy that he prioritises this play over all else, including his finances and relationships. In one particularly crazed move early on in the film, he injures a co-star so he can draft in famous Broadway actor Mike Shiner (Ed Norton), and he turns out to be another character with a stick up their ass about protecting their image. This makes him a nightmare to work with; not only terrified that he'll be accused of selling out, but constantly putting on this front as some kind of troubled artist when really he's just a desperate womaniser.
  
  All of this obsession with outward appearance is confounded by the prospect of a review from Broadway's lead critic, and when she tells Riggan she's going to give him a bad write-up before she's even seen the play, he spirals into insanity. That plays out in all sorts of ways, not least through some surrealist elements where Riggan increasingly ends up talking to his superhero character as some kind of alter-ego. But the final acts of desperation play out in front of everyone on the stage, and the audience's reaction says all it needs to about the fickle nature of public perception and the hollow value of legacy. Riggan may have miraculously become a somewhat respected artist, but it clearly shouldn't have been worth the cost.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The fact nothing cuts through the delusion of these characters and they still see their legacy as the most important thing in the end despite all the hardship they've ensured and the damage they've caused makes the film more of a satirical comedy than a serious drama.
  
  VERDICT: 'Birdman,' is a film about deluded actors who go to ridiculous lengths to be respected, and the result is a brilliant, observational satire.

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