Showing posts with label dark humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark humor. Show all posts

Monday, October 12, 2015

"BIRDMAN" - FILM

The complete title of the movie is Birdman; The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance.  Right there you have a smile - at least I did.  I watched the movie twice and laughed out loud during a number of scenes both times, more so in the second viewing, but the humor is dark, indeed.  My responses ran the gamut, from, "What's going on?" (my initial reaction), to laughter, to suspense, to sadness, and back more than once to all of the above, till the final, "What's going on?"

Michael Keaton is brilliant as Riggan Thomson, aka Birdman, an aging film superhero, who, of course, can fly, and who is trying to change the direction of  his career by bringing to the stage a short story by Raymond Carver in which he also plays a starring role. Emma Stone is terrific in the role of Riggan's daughter, Sam, who is just out of rehab.  Stone is a commanding presence each time she appears on the screen.  The scenes with Sam and Michael Shiner (Edward Norton), an actor who is brought into the play in a leading role at the eleventh hour, are especially funny, tender, and poignant.  Jake (Zach Galifianakis), Riggan's long-suffering good friend and lawyer, is very fine in his supporting role.

As for the play within a movie, from the scenes that appear the film, the drama is not the least believable, nor is it recognizable as based on a Carver story, but, nevertheless, it serves to advance the dark, chaotic hilarity of the story. 

Since I watched the film twice, you've probably guessed that I think it worth viewing, and I very much do.  Though I highly recommend the movie, because of the blackness of its satire, Birdman is probably not for everyone.