Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture

A sad, bilious journey

byCNS
28 November 2014
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA

Sad tale: Michael Keaton stars in a scene from the movie Birdman. Photo: CNS

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BIRDMAN: Starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts. Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. 119 mins. Rated: MA15+ (Strong coarse language) 

TALKY, pretentious and filled with existential angst when the characters aren’t preoccupied with spitting curses, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is visually dazzling.

Morally, though, it’s dead weight.

This black comedy reflects on the nature of fame – specifically, the warping power of movie fame gained by playing big-budget comic-book heroes.

It occasionally circles this theme, but provides no resolution.

Sad tale: Michael Keaton stars in a scene from the movie Birdman. Photo: CNS
Sad tale: Michael Keaton stars in a scene from the movie Birdman. Photo: CNS

Gloom, anxiety and complete self-absorption supplant responsible behaviour – with no evident consequences.

Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, an actor who has achieved worldwide fame playing an action hero called Birdman in a series of films.

This, of course, parallels Keaton’s own experience as the star of two Batman pictures released in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

We are constantly reminded that Thomson’s turn as Birdman represented a soul-deadening artistic sellout.

With much of his money now drained away, Thomson is attempting to redefine himself as a serious actor.

Related Stories

Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

He has adapted – and is directing and starring in – a work by famed short-story writer Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

As the movie opens, the show is in previews on Broadway.

The preview performances mostly go wrong, launching a series of in-jokes for theatre buffs.

Things go from bad to worse when, after a rehearsal mishap, Thomson hires intense performer Mike (Edward Norton), who undermines him at every opportunity.

Riggan’s Birdman alter ego haunts him in voiceovers, taunting him about his earlier celebrity and deriding his effort to become a grounded actor.

That Riggan’s movie powers derived entirely from special effects never appears in these discussions.

Riggan understands so little about Carver’s story that he ends the play with an on-stage gun suicide he wrote himself.

This delights the uncaring, whooping audiences in need of spectacle, while guaranteeing he’ll get a hostile review from The New York Times.

Director Alejandro Inarritu and his co-writers Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr and Armando Bo fill most of the film with bitter speeches.

Riggan’s daughter and assistant Sam (Emma Stone) gets to deliver one of the strongest of them: “You’re doing this because, like the rest of us, you’re scared you don’t matter. And guess what –you don’t matter. Get used to it.”

Riggan has his supportive girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough) in the cast and sometimes receives terse counselling from producer Jake (Zach Galifianakis).

But most of his best advice comes from his ex-wife Sylvia (Amy Ryan), who consoles him with, “It’s what you always do. You mistake love for admiration.”

One’s reaction to the movie becomes, then, strictly a matter of taste.

If you savour vinegar – as in, bucket after bucket of it – you’ll have little trouble enduring this.

Otherwise, it’s a sad, bilious journey.

CNS

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Storm havoc hits Brisbane schools, churches

Next Post

Naturally awaiting the infant Jesus

CNS

Related Posts

Plenary task: “Reveal the face of Christ”
News

Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

30 June 2022
Man of faith: Newly-ordained priest Fr El Louie Jiminez with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen's Cathedral on June 29. Photos: Alan Edgecomb / Purple Moon Photography
QLD

Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

30 June 2022
Braving the cold: Caloundra Unity College Principal Daniel McShea ,Our Lady of the Rosary College Principal Dr Michael Stewart and Caloundra priest Fr Joshua Whitehead.

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

30 June 2022
Next Post
nativity pic

Naturally awaiting the infant Jesus

‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’

Impressive work of faith and scholarship

Popular News

  • Performer: Liza is a trained gymnast and contortionist and has enjoyed performing at St Eugene College.

    Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Plenary task: “Reveal the face of Christ”
News

Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

by Mark Bowling
30 June 2022
0

LEADING Catholics say decisions made at the second assembly of the Plenary Council next week – could...

Man of faith: Newly-ordained priest Fr El Louie Jiminez with Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge at St Stephen's Cathedral on June 29. Photos: Alan Edgecomb / Purple Moon Photography

Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

30 June 2022
Braving the cold: Caloundra Unity College Principal Daniel McShea ,Our Lady of the Rosary College Principal Dr Michael Stewart and Caloundra priest Fr Joshua Whitehead.

Fr Josh braves ‘freezing’ June night to raise awareness for homelessness at Vinnies Sleepout

30 June 2022
Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, Pope says in follow-up letter to Traditionis Custodes

30 June 2022
Performer: Liza is a trained gymnast and contortionist and has enjoyed performing at St Eugene College.

Young Ukrainian performer settles into new life in Brisbane school

29 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping