Much can be said of Birdman. Much can be critisized and much can be praised but one thing that has to be said is that the film is ambitious. Yet I actually think the film is slightly to ambitious for its own good instead of reaching to say something heart warming its reaching to be clever and smart and in the end the film feels quite cold.
The whole film is obsessed by this idea of realty and fiction merging. As we find within the powers of Birdman start to apply to Riggin Thompson, the narrative of the film starts to merge with life in the fact that Keaton like his character once played a superhero and his star has now fallen. In an attempt to merge reality with film Iñárritu directs the whole film in one long take. Again this is to be applauded and further enhances his idea of the line between reality and fiction merging but it leaves him with the inability to edit or cut which means to whole film feels like a slight stretch it feels a bit long in some points. If the film wasn’t so obsessed by showing us how smart it was then it might actually be more enjoyable. Ironically it gets caught in its own pretentions of grandeur those same pretentions it seems to be reflecting on.
There are high points to the film as well and its these moments you wish it had more of, there are many funny bits about Hollywood jokes about actors, jokes about the media and jokes about the rich folk who can still afford to go to the theatre on a regular basis. The actors are all on point Keaton convinces us he is this man caught up in the confusion around him. Norton is the high point though as his ultra method actor and its him who draws the most laughs out of the film.
Devin Faraci* put Birdman best when he said “it’s a movie where characters walk around declaring who they are, what they represent and what the movie is about” it’s the screenwriting that in this way lets Birdman down you get the feeling its four screenwriters at in a room together feeling very pleased with themselves for being so smart. This sentiment is representative of what’s wrong with Birdman the film is too pleased with its self, too smart aiming to be some sort of transcendent piece of work it jumps for this fall over with a bad bruise on its face. The film should have been happier being a smart funny film mocking actors and the arts rather than a smug film trying to be to clever for any fun to he had.
3/5 stars
3/5 stars
*You can read his full review here
No comments:
Post a Comment