Billy Wilder once said: "If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you." I'm guessing Mexican writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu would agree.
His fantastical black comedy, which trails a grey-fleshed Hollywood icon, Riggan (Michael Keaton), as he tries to reboot his career by staging a Raymond Carver play on Broadway, finds that sweet spot where gags and devastating insights merge.
Theatres are full of phoneys and snobs; superhero movies offer "apocalyptic porn". The script, along with the camerawork, won’t stay still (lengthy tracking shots give the film a uniquely airborne vibe). Yet wackiness is never pursued for its own sake. Birdman doesn’t seek cult status. High as a kite, as opposed to high and mighty, it wants to reach out and touch us all.
Other brilliant directors have explored similar territory, most notably Spike Jonze in Adaptation. Iñárritu’s secret weapon is kamikaze Keaton. When the one-time Batman star delivers lines about the svelte, youthful-looking, Robert Downey Jr — aka Iron Man — it feels not only topical (Avengers 2 will be with us this spring) but brave.
Downey Jr is a winner, until recently Keaton seemed very much the loser. This could have been the nail in his coffin. He deserves praise, as well as an Oscar, for throwing caution to the wind.
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