Birdman or (The Unexpected virtue of ignorance)

-AND DiD YOU GET WHAT YOU WANTED FROM THiS LiFE, EVEN SO?

-I DiD

-AND WHAT DiD YOU WANT?

-TO CALL MYSELF BELOVED, TO FEEL MYSELF BELOVED ON THE EARTH.                                                                                                                                     - (Raymond Carver)

Birdman, it is a movie that will play with your mind until the last minute and will revolve around the above questions. Starring Micheal Keaton in a lead role along with talented actors like Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone and includes solo jazz percussion throughout the film which is very refreshing. Entire film appears as if filmed in a single shot for which this film won Academy Award for Best Cinematography along with Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay and several nominations.

Riggan Thomson (Micheal Keaton) is a faded Hollywood actor famous for playing a superhero named Birdman in a film trilogy in the 90s. He is hallucinated by the insulting and critical internal voice of ‘Birdman’ (or he is actual birdman, will question you every moment) and frequently visualizes himself performing feats of levitation and telekinesis. He is trying to regain his fame by directing and staring himself in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story. However, the Birdman wants Riggan to return to blockbuster cinema and insists that he is an essential part of his identity. Riggan's daughter Sam (Emma Stone), a recovering drug addict with whom he is trying to reconnect, is working as his assistant. The day before the first preview due to accident on set Riggan gets forced to replace one of his costars with Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), a brilliant but very whimsical method actor. The first preview comes out to be disastrous because of Mike’s volatility and NewYork Times publishes an interview of Mike Shiner in which he steals Riggan's personal reason for doing a Raymond Carver play. These series of events make Riggan get rid of Mike but he couldn’t due to timeline and budget. During this, he gets to know about his daughter’s reemerging drug problems and how his daughter thinks about him, about his senseless efforts as he is not doing anything interesting to become famous.

During the final preview, due to mishap Riggan is forced to walk through crowded Time Square in his underpants and enter through the audience to do the final scene. A concerned Sam thinks her dad’s performance was very unusual and interesting. She shows him that the Times Square footage is going viral and explains how this actually helps him. That night Riggan meets Tabitha Dickinson in a Bar, a highly influential theatre critic, who just hate Hollywood celebrities and their fake efforts to be serious actors and promises to "kill" Riggan's play with a deprecating review without even having seen it; offended and drunk Riggan angrily rebukes her criticisms and on the way back passes out on a stoop. The next day, walking to the theatre with a severe hangover, he has a conversation with the Birdman, who tries to convince him to abandon the play and make a fourth Birdman film by showing him imaginary action film sequence takes place on the street nearby, and how audience enjoys it. Riggan visualizes himself flying through the streets of Manhattan before arriving at the theatre. (This film will definitely flip you, asking whether he was actually flying or just an imagination)

On the opening night, while the play is going very well, Riggan in his dressing room, calmly confesses to his ex-wife, Sylvia, that several years ago, he attempted suicide and about his inner Birdman's voice, which she ignores. After Sylvia leaves the room, Riggan picks up a real gun, rather than a prop, for the final scene in which his character commits suicide. At the climax, Riggan shoots himself in the head on stage and the play receives a pin-drop silence followed by a standing ovation for sheer realism and his commitment. The next day, Riggan wakes up in a hospital with his face covered in bandages as his nose has been surgically reshaped after he blew it off during the climax. Producer Jake cannot contain his excitement that the play will run forever after Tabitha published a glowing review acclaiming the play, which called the suicide attempt a new art, "super-realism," and just what the American theatre needed. Sam visits Riggan with flowers and takes a picture of him to scare the skyrocketing number of followers on the Twitter account she has created for him. While Sam steps outside to find a vase, Riggan obscenely says goodbye to Birdman and fascinated by the birds flying outside his room, leaps from a window (presumably to his death). Sam returns to an empty room and frantically runs to the open window, scanning the ground before slowly looking up into the sky and smiling indicating Riggan finally did something special for her daughter.

The End....

In the end, the movie leaves a number of questions unanswered like So did Riggan fall to his death? If so, what was with his daughter's reaction? Or did he actually turn out to have his Birdman-like powers, and fly away? Or did Sam also see some kind of hallucinations? Or was the whole thing a fantasy all the way through? and many more.....

                                                                        -NVB🤓