Birdman!

I've heard it said that this is a golden age of television. There are countless phenomenal shows worth our attention. There are still good movies being made, but seemingly fewer. I finally had a chance to see the critically acclaimed Birdman, one of these better movies. I was impressed with its originality, self-reflection, dark humor, and ability to bring out that humanity in difficult characters. It made me think of some of the best movies from recent years. Or maybe not all that recent, since as I age, 20 years ago feels like yesterday.

Birdman feels like a play adapted to the screen, since 90% of it takes place in one building (a theater, no less), and it doesn't use elaborate sets. It is a lot like the movie Doubt in that sense, which was in fact adapted from the stage.

Riggan Thomson, the protagonist in Birdman, is not that different from Bob Harris in Lost in Translation: an aging Hollywood acting trying to find his place in the world.

The movie is a big middle finger to blockbuster action films. The viewer gets the sense that although his Birdman trilogy was a tremendous financial success, it did not give Thomson much fulfillment as an actor. When a theater critic tells him that he is not an actor, but a mere celebrity, he does not dispute that, knowing that he is out to change that through his stage performance.

Charlie Kaufman's Synecdouche, New York, is way too radical a movie to even register much in my mind. But I caught an echo of it in Birdman with the story within a story that ties into the protagonist's evolution.

These comparison's are not to put Birdman down. The opposite, really. The movie shares qualities with these other films that are some most creative, original, and mind-expanding of recent years. And kudos again to Michael Keaton. After decades on film, with Birdman and Spotlight he is now doing his best work.