Birdman: Flying High Up Again review

Birdman: Flying High Up Again

     “We were the real thing, Riggan. We had it all. We gave it away. We handed these poseurs the keys to the kingdom.” Birdman who is the main character Riggan Thompson’s inner imaginary person whispered this to Riggan Thompson. This quotation makes audiences think about whether Riggan stays in the play, or leaves for his benefit at the beginning. In this year’s Oscar ceremony, the movie, Birdman, got four awards: the best picture, the best screenplay, the best director, and the best filming. This film is the new work that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directed ambitiously after a four year break.

Riggan Thompson is an old man, who used to be a celebrity in Hollywood in the past, but he is now a forgotten actor. The movie, Birdman, shows that he is trying to come back as a real actor who acts with his all passion and retakes his place in the theatre. His first play is based on a novel written by Raymond Carver. However, one of his co-actors is hit by a stage light before the preview, and the director has to replace him with another. Fortunately, they cast Mike, who is the best actor in theatre and widely recognized by the public and critics, but he is out of control. He always acts as he pleases. He has a hypocritical attitude, and is a sexual pervert. In the first preview, his true characteristics are revealed in front of the audiences. There is a scene where he acts as if he is drinking alcohol. He wants this preview session to be real, but his cup is filled with water, not alcohol. He tries to mess up the preview session and stage. He says, “There is nothing real here on this stage except this real chicken in refrigerator”. From this scene audiences can see how his characteristics are unusual and cause Riggan’s trouble. Riggan has to make up for his fame through his first play.

Another problem Riggan encounters is his family issues. He got divorced from his wife, and his daughter had issues with drugs. His daughter always tries to defy him because Riggan didn't take care of his family, and he still doesn't care about his family in order to focus on his play. He is recognized as no good by his daughter, his new girlfriend and co-worker. In his complicated situation, Birdman is whispering to him to go back to Hollywood in order to redeem his reputation and popularity which Riggan had before. This movie shows how Riggan turns out to be out of his mind through communicating with Birdman, and how Riggan and Birdman are in a tug of war over the real actor. When I saw Riggan’s situations, I felt a pity that some middle-aged people, who already retire, have same crisis what Riggan experience. Middle-aged people also want to follow their dreams, but their dream is usually blocked by the mighty wall of harsh reality.

The biggest problem of his resurgence of his reputation is that many critics don’t recognize his play as “the play” from what they think of him. They don’t consider Riggan as a professional actor. In the middle part of the screen, one critic censures him, “You are no actor. You are a celebrity.” In this scene, we can see that the director of this movie wants to tell audiences that the Hollywood industry shows only what people want to see, but not real acting. Most of the Hollywood stars are acting for their benefit, not for genuine art. This message actually makes me lose my words because there is an ironic content. Although director criticizes about pop culture of Hollywood, and praises the high culture of the theatre, his movie is made for pop culture. I really want to say Alejandro Gonzalez, the director of Birdman, is very courageous.

This film throws a question to us: “Can Riggan fly up again?” and gives us some lessons about what limitations you encounter and how much courage you should put forth to overcome your own limitation. Overall, the movie, Birdman, is well-organized with plot, directing, music and characters. If I have to pick a fault of this movie, it contains racism at the beginning of the film. In the first part of the movie, Riggan’s daughter, Sam, bursts out, “It all smells like fucking kimchi.” When I was watching this scene, I thought that this scene degrades Korean culture. It is because sometimes they call Koreans as kimchi when Americans say mean things about Korea. As I am Korean, I felt not quite satisfied with this scene. Without this part, I recommend everyone should watch this kind of movie that has some sympathetic content that touches our heart, and gives useful lessons for improving our tired lives.