I love award season. Jake Gyllenhaal knocked it out of the park with “Nightcrawler,” Matthew McConaughey nearly brought me to tears in “Interstellar” and now Michael Keaton has returned to the silver screen with what will most certainly be an award worthy performance with “Birdman.” Honestly, this is the film I’ve been waiting for all year. I’ve yearned to finally experience a film that allows me to simply sit back and bask in both the technical craft and emotional maturity on display. I loved “Birdman” more than any other film in 2014, and that’s not something that I regularly say about a film.
The film opens with washed-up actor Riggan Thompson (Keaton) meditating on his life decisions. He used to be the blockbuster movie star known as “Birdman” in the early ‘90s, but since he declined the opportunity to do “Birdman 4,” he has been all but forgotten in the public’s eyes. In a desperate attempt to validate himself as an artist and an actor, he decided to produce, direct and star in a Broadway play. The film picks up a few days before the opening night of the production, and the audience is given a very intimate look at the utter insanity that is putting on a Broadway play.
From the get-go, it’s clear that this is a film unlike any other. The entire thing is shot to look like it was done in one long take, and the illusion of never overtly seeing the film cut only adds to the immersion of the audience. The camera eerily floats down hallways and through doorways while it spectrally chases after characters.
The filming technique truly lends itself to creating a claustrophobic environment, and you really do feel like you’re backstage with the cast and crew for a majority of the film. There’s also the soundtrack comprised entirely of drum beats. It has a very jazzy feel to it, as if the entire score was performed off the cuff. Again, this only reinforces the theme of improvisation that is inherent to putting on live performances.
As for the acting, let’s just say that Keaton is all but guaranteed to be nominated for his performance in this film. Riggan is manic, but sincere, and you can truly feel his desperation and insanity towards the third act of the film. Riggan just wants to be known as an actor, not simply as the guy who was popular in the ‘90s, but his inner voices keep trying to tempt him into going back and putting the Birdman costume on again. His internal conflict is one of doing what is right versus doing what is easy. He knows that audiences would be clambering at the chance to see Birdman again, and he knows that it would easily make a killing at the box office, but he doesn’t believe that Birdman is what gives him purpose. He has to prove to himself that Birdman as a character exists because of his efforts, and not that he exists as an actor because of Birdman. Everyone else in the film is fantastic too, from Edward Norton to Emma Stone. Even Zach Galifianakis is wonderful, but they all perform in Keaton’s shadow.
“Birdman” is a film with huge ambitions in both technical and storytelling terms. Thankfully, it not only reaches the heights for which it aims, but it surpasses them. I had relatively high expectations of this film going in after hearing a lot of the Oscar buzz surrounding it, and after seeing it I can assure you that this is not a film you want to miss. “Birdman” entertained me as much as it inspired me, and it is assuredly my current favorite film of 2014.
