Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) - Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu

Creating and expressing ambiguity in film is a complicated trick to perfect: how much can be left unresolved before that original intention for ambiguity becomes lost in disorganised tangle of themes and narrative threads. It’s exciting to see films that can be interpreted in different ways, but each interpretation needs to be clear and defendable. Unfortunately Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) doesn’t know what it wants to say (or fails to clearly express what it wants to say), despite all of the irrefutably enjoyable things about it. It’s so confused that it can’t even decide if it wants to use its poncey subtitle or not.
The film is great fun, from the slightly knowing performances to the moments of laugh out load humour. It is at its best as an almost farcical look behind the scenes of a Broadway play. The trick of stitching all of the sequences to look like one continuous take works well in the theatre, which is a maze of corridors and cramped spaces.
Michael Keaton is receiving a lot of praise for his role as depressed actor Riggan Thompson; this is partly because he’s really good and partly because his fall from stardom after portraying Batman in the early 90’s mirrors his character’s struggle after playing Birdman for three movies. In fact, all of the main actors are great, although some of their characters do go missing as the film’s climax approaches.

 Similarly as the film progresses and more of the action moves outside of the theatre, the continuous take doesn’t have the same impact and begins to distract from the narrative. By insisting on using the trick for the whole film (bar a couple of shots at the beginning and end), it takes away any reason for doing it in the first place. It’s like handing everybody a prize for participating: everyone goes home happy, but it negates the purpose of handing out prizes in the first place.

 As Riggan becomes increasingly delusional the filmmakers stumble in trying to bring out a deeper meaning from the proceedings, particularly with the film’s ending. For the ambiguous ending to work, it should be possible to read it in different ways, but each way needs to be complete and offer a full explanation. Unfortunately the ending of Birdman doesn’t offer any complete interpretations, just half understandings and confused messages. I don’t have to know exactly what happened, but I should be able to offer a full explanation of what happened, even if someone else has a different interpretation that they believe.



Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) was released in UK cinemas on 2nd January 2015. Images and trailer courtesy of Fox Searchlight.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BFI LFF 2016: HEAL THE LIVING - Dir. Katell Quillévéré

Image
A synopsis can sometimes do a film no favours and describing the story in Katell Quillévéré’s third feature would bring to mind any number of hospital dramas. The key to the film’s power lies in the Quillévéré’s execution: finding the small moments of humanity amongst the enormity of the situation the characters face. It’s life and death, but not as the movies know it. Adapted from an acclaimed novel by Maylis de Kerangal, Heal The Living introduces Simon (Gabin Verdet) climbing out of his girlfriend’s bedroom window to catch the early morning tide with two surfing friends. In strictest terms, he’s travelling through the night to stand in the sea on a slab of polyurethane, but it’s his passion for the surf that Quillévéré captures (through some quite breath-taking underwater and in water photography). Just hours later, Simon is declared brain dead after a severe car crash and his parents Marianne and Vincent (Emanuelle Seigner and Kool Shen) must decide whether to donate their so
Read more

Sunshine - Dir. Danny Boyle

Image
It’s been a few years since I last watched Danny Boyle’s blistering space drama and although the likes of Gravity and Interstellar have dazzled and amazed in that time, Sunshine really is the pick of the bunch and is still (probably) somewhat underrated. Space Craft The film still looks absolutely fantastic and has aged incredibly well, primarily because of an approach to the design that places functionality ahead of an overt style. Production designer Mark Tildesley and director of photography Alwin Küchler worked together to limit the use of reds, oranges and yellows in the design of the ship’s interior to deprive the viewer of those colours, so that the visual impact of the sun’s glow is amplified whenever it appears on screen. The design never draws attention away from the drama and feels like a natural progression from the technology of today, but it still feels somewhat futuristic. To add to this invisible design, the pair also built in enough lighting into the ship’s
Read more

John Wick - Dir. Chad Stahleski & David Leitch

Image
A thoroughly juvenile action bore that’s sole aim is to be described as “awesome” and “cool” as Keanu Reeves kills an undefined number of de facto bad guys. There’s a complete disinterest in story and characters that ultimately denotes the occasionally distinctive visuals as completely pointless.
Read more