This film is a darkly comic satire of both movies and theater and of the supposed rift between blockbuster schlock and true art. As a backstage look at actors and their anxieties and failed personal lives, it reminded me of The Entertainer and The Dresser.
The movie stars Michael Keaton in a self-referential role as a movie actor who became a major star twenty years before as the action hero Birdman, but who has fallen on hard times and has come to redeem himself as an actor by starring on Broadway in a work by Raymond Carver ("What We Talk About When We Talk About Love") that he has adapted for the stage and is directing, as well. He is tormented by a voice in his head--his alter ego, Birdman, fed up with the effete snobbishness of the theater. His daughter, who is working as his assistant, is just out of rehab; his girlfriend thinks she's pregnant; his ex-wife is on scene; he has hired a difficult but "name" actor (Edward Norton) to help fill the seats.
The movie is shot in such a way that it gives the sense of being one long take, except for a bit at the beginning and at the end, an interesting approach that has the disadvantage of dragging us through the narrow byways of backstage at the St. James theater in NYC.
There are some hilarious parts in this movie. It is exceptionally well-acted by all concerned. It teeters between magical realism and a study in insanity throughout, and for me loses that balance with a thud at the very end. The journey there is well worth it, however; I very much recommend it.
The movie stars Michael Keaton in a self-referential role as a movie actor who became a major star twenty years before as the action hero Birdman, but who has fallen on hard times and has come to redeem himself as an actor by starring on Broadway in a work by Raymond Carver ("What We Talk About When We Talk About Love") that he has adapted for the stage and is directing, as well. He is tormented by a voice in his head--his alter ego, Birdman, fed up with the effete snobbishness of the theater. His daughter, who is working as his assistant, is just out of rehab; his girlfriend thinks she's pregnant; his ex-wife is on scene; he has hired a difficult but "name" actor (Edward Norton) to help fill the seats.
The movie is shot in such a way that it gives the sense of being one long take, except for a bit at the beginning and at the end, an interesting approach that has the disadvantage of dragging us through the narrow byways of backstage at the St. James theater in NYC.
There are some hilarious parts in this movie. It is exceptionally well-acted by all concerned. It teeters between magical realism and a study in insanity throughout, and for me loses that balance with a thud at the very end. The journey there is well worth it, however; I very much recommend it.
