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esteeb.art · @esteeb.art@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) 8/10

<strong>LSC 10 Week 10: Long Takes Week<strong> I’ve been meaning to get this for a while. Like since it came out. How long ago was that? Dammit Birdman (I’m not doing the subtitle, sorry) is a firecracker of a movie. A string of them in fact. The patter of the dialogue, the sort of ticking time bomb pacing of the action and the literal ticking, pattering and booming of the drum solo that makes the up the films minimalist score gives a movie a sense of energy and dynamism that feels as much of an act of defiance as the piece’s overall messaging. Then there’s the faux one shot of it all that’s been lauded everywhere. It makes the whole affair feel surreal, like we’re drifting in and out of a dream (sometimes a nightmare). It creates this weird push and pull between live theater and fever dream stream of consciousness that puts you in the chaos of creation. I was expecting most of this. It’s the stuff people have been lauding about this movie for what has, apparently, been a decade since it’s release. What I feel like I’ve seen a talked about a lot less is how frank the movie is about the relationship between art and the artist. There have been a lot of movies about art and artists and what it takes to be one. Birdman is that but it’s a lot more than that. It’s about the urge to not just create but be taken seriously while we do it, the way we relate to other artists including but especially our collaborators, how the art and art making are driven and stymied by Capital, how being a creative can effect our relationships with people on the outside of that world, the age old rivalry between artist and critics, the trap that is the oneupsmanship of trying to create the “next big thing” and, most importantly I think, is that ultimately the urge to create is inextricably linked to one’s ego. Birdman is at once a conversation and a dance. The conversation is about all the stuff I just listed, but it’s a conversation that is happening in multiple directions. It’s between the piece and the audience, the characters and the piece and the piece within the piece. It’s also in conversation with the director himself, to the point where the emotional crux of the piece within the piece and the piece itself has Michael Keaton in a costume that makes him look eerily like Iñárritu himself. The dance though, is something familiar to anyone who wants to make things if they are honest with themselves. The dance of wanting to create, putting everything they have into the thing at the expense of everything else in their life, all while fighting with the money men who are telling you your dream isn’t possible or worth anything without an ROI, ignoring but also being deeply hurt by the cultural gatekeepers who are telling you that you don’t belong in the space to begin with and then bemoan that their medium is dying, all while a voice in your head is telling you to look around and asking the very real and valid question of “Why the fuck are you trying so hard? What are you trying to prove? Just sell out like everyone else.” You do this dance forever, every time you do it. Until you get the thing made or it kills you (literally or metaphorically), whichever comes first. But by making this personal both for himself and for the audience, Iñárritu is saying that we are all Riggan and we all have a Birdman. In a way, I think the movie is more interesting now than it was when it came out. At the time it could be very easy to dismiss it as sour grapes about a changing landscape. But when you watch this movie in 2024 that landscape is a lot different. The wheels have all but fallen off the big CGI blockbuster (see: superhero movies) gravy train, artists and the act of creation are undervalued to an almost historic level, and we’re all kind of looking around and wondering what to do next? Birdman is both a cautionary tale and a love letter to those people who go out and try to make something worthwhile on their own terms no matter what the climate looks like. It’s romantic about the magic of that process but also cuttingly honest about the fact that this is a pursuit of hubris, ego and insecurity masquerading as genius or nobility. It’s a movie that I think stands the test of time, and it’s only going to get more important as the avenues we use to express ourselves are encroached upon by rent seekers. It’s important to make things, to make things that are pretentious and self serving because at the end of the day that’s what art is and what drives the conversation forward. But it’s just as important to be humble and realistic about where that comes from.

#lsc10 #lsc10 week10 #movie

Published 2024-11-26 00:00 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere