“The Feathered Snake” Birdman (2014)

While many other self-aware films have responded to the question “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” by slapping themselves in the face, the newest directorial triumph from Mexico City’s own Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams, Babel) responds by inexplicably bending the laws of metaphysics and receiving a high-five from the same hand that delivered it.  Birdman indeed reignites the career of its near-forgotten Hollywood-Studio-Commercial-Actor-O-Tron star, Michael Keaton by granting him a knockout role as… well, a near-forgotten Hollywood-Studio-Commercial-Actor-O-Tron attempting to reignite his career.  Michael Keaton is Riggan Thomson just as Edward Norton is Mike Shiner and along with a fertile cornucopia of talented actors which includes Emma Stone (Superbad), Zach Galafanakis (The Hangover), and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive), the two lead us through a farcically delightful and delightfully farcical interpretation of a man stepping from screen to stage.  Truly, the film delivers by juggling a complex, tongue-in-cheek narrative with a star-studded arrangement of actors comparable to the size of Our Town.

It has been said that film actors play to the camera while stage actors play to the people in the back row.  Birdman leisurely defies this convention by roosting under both roofs.  Its actors are free to play to the camera during its more intimate, filmic scenes just as they may stretch their theatrical mannerisms to the fullest during its scenes set on stage.  And often these two worlds blend seamlessly and ultimately blur the viewer’s ability to discern between the two.  A tremendous example of this phenomenon occurs when Mike fruitlessly attempts to engage in unsimulated coitus with Lesley (Watts) during a dress rehearsal performance.  Norton’s character is a man so obsessed with harnessing vital inspirations for his acting roles that he often leaves others footing the bill for his reckless actions.  Lesley and Mike quickly exit the stage after their bedroom scene and immediately explode into a fiery argument.  They are forced to abandon their spat and don enormous plastic “Miss America grins” as they return to the stage to wash themselves in the audience’s applause.  It is a sharp satire of the inner-troupe conflicts held between actors that often go completely unnoticed by the viewing patrons.  More importantly though, the aforementioned moment is a snapshot of the incredible acting range demanded by the director and exhibited throughout the film.  The cast of Birdman are able to activate projected emotion as if they were switches on an appliance or channels to flip on television.

“Oh god why don’t I have any self-respect?” Lesley wails to Laura (Andrea Riseborough) after her rough and unresolved encounter with Mike.  “Because you’re an actor, honey.” Laura responds coolly without taking even a moment to consider the question.  It is a playful rib at actors everywhere and certainly upholds the film’s reminder that performance artists are fragile creatures.  It goes hand in hand with confessions like those given by Mike to Emma Stone’s character, Sam: for some actors, the performance feels truer to them than reality.  And when the words are spoken with the energy and conviction that a professional like Edward Norton is able to muster, it gives the words a new life’s purpose.  But true to his promise, Mike also spoke with an equal air of duty in his voice upon his first blind sit-down script reading with Riggan.  Like the actor who plays him, Mike Shiner could likely produce audience-husing bravado simply from reading aloud from an encyclopedia.

Several acting styles emerge throughout the film, but most noted and dissimilar are Mike’s fantastic method acting and Riggan’s reality-inspired style.  Though Mike consciously inhabits his characters and Riggan chooses instead to accept the symbolism offered by his own performances, the spectrum that separates the two men is not rigidly linear.  It is a bent spectrum in which either extreme end rounds back like a horseshoe and nearly touches the other.

While it is difficult to determine or even argue that Norton insisted on carrying out his acting to the level that his character, Mike, undoubtedly insisted upon, the suggestion alone certainly warrants an appropriate laugh.  In real life Norton’s on-set personality is reputably difficult to work with; his overzealous suggestions and raucous outbursts have become synonymous with his proficient performance ability.  It is Michael Keaton however who emerges as the for-too-long unsung hero who stands proudly atop the freshly unearthed acting career grave.  Keaton barks behind the fence-line as Riggan Thomson, but more importantly he growls menacingly a mere inches away from your face as Birdman.  It shows us that the inner-voice speaks louder than the audible voice and it also speaks with a greater sense of reliability.  It is a production which awes you long after your screening.  Indeed, Birdman is the great snake in the sky which swallows its own tail in order to create eternity!