Birdman - Film Review

Birdman, the tale of a semi-retired blockbuster fantasy hero who makes a comeback by going 'serious' on Broadway is violently in yer face funny. A bunch of raving egomaniacs are confined within the theatre; the only environment in which they can just about function. Their fights about who has the best reality often switch from verbal to physical battering. A lot of slapstick, a great underpants sequence where Michael Keaton our ex-superhero goes out for a fag and rips his dressing gown. Drama, great drama about the meaning of life, Icarus, and Art lies at the root of it, struggling to emerge punch-drunk from all the raving and shouting. Birdman has written, directed and wants to star in his play about Raymond Carver when his co-actor stops upstaging him and his beautiful cynic of a daughter tells him he doesn't exist because he has no Twitter. My fave bit is when the drunk birdman struggling to keep his feet on the gaudy broadway streets hears Shakepeare's 'tomorrow and tomorrow' not spoken reflectively but shouted to hell 'A poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage....a tale Told by an Idiot, Full of Sound and Fury!' Brilliant, deserved its' Oscars, want to see it again.