Trailer Trashin’: Michael Keaton Loses his Mind in Birdman
Hello again, dear readers. I hope you’re enjoying the summer movie season. This week takes a break from the big blockbusters, with the two major releases being Clint Eastwood’s musical Jersey Boys and the completely unnecessary comedy sequel Think Like a Man Too. And in the spirit of offbeat releases, this week’s slightly-delayed installment of Trailer Trashin’ features the upcoming comedy-drama Birdman.
Premise: Washed-up actor Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) – famous for playing the iconic superhero Birdman – struggles to mount a Broadway play, an adaptation of Raymond Carver’s 1981 short story collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself.
My take: For people my age and younger, it’s getting hard to remember a time when superheroes haven’t been a huge part of movies. But other than the mockumentary Comic Book: The Movie (2004) and, arguably, Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), there haven’t been many films that are actually about superhero movies and their place in modern culture. Now, director Alejandro González Iñárritu – who previously brought us Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006), and Biutiful (2010) – is tackling this rarely-used subject with his new comedy-drama Birdman. The first teaser trailer for Birdman is now out, and it’s definitely something I’m going to keep an eye on.
Most of the focus of the trailer is on Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he does here. The casting of Keaton in this role is nothing short of brilliant, and perfectly plays off his real-life career path. While he has kept working fairly consistently, he’s never gotten back to the level of stardom he had in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and Batman is definitely his most famous role. Keaton is an actor whose work I’ve always enjoyed, and I’ve long felt that he was a great Batman who never got to be in a great Batman movie. Also on-hand are fellow comic-book movie veterans Edward Norton and Emma Stone, who play, respectively, an “arrogant stage actor who tries to usurp Riggan’s control of the play” and Riggan’s daughter. We briefly see Zach Galifianakis, who plays Brandon Vander Hey, a theatrical producer, and Naomi Watts, whose role is currently unknown. Also in the cast are Andrea Riseborough as Riggan’s girlfriend Laura, and Amy Ryan as a character named Griffin Murray.
I also dig the crazy, surreal imagery on display in this teaser. We’ve got Michael Keaton’s Riggan walking through a crowded New York street in only his underwear, apparently jumping off the top of a building, and getting in a pathetic fight with Edward Norton’s character. Then there’s the truly out-there stuff, presumably the products of Riggan’s tortured psyche – the missile strike in the middle of the street, the giant bird-creature on the side of a building, and the flock of birds descending on a beach. And the images are perfectly complemented by the music, a slow, melancholy cover of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley – which is a phrase I never thought I would write. However, I do hope that this stuff is in service of a good story, and not just weird for the sake of being weird.
Ever since I first heard about the premise of this film and who was playing the lead role, I’ve been looking forward to it. And if this trailer is any indication, it might be something special. We’ve got a talented director behind the camera, a cool premise, crazy imagery, and a good cast. If nothing else, I can say this doesn’t look like anything else I’ve seen recently. When mid-October rolls around, I’ll definitely want to check out Birdman.
ANTICIPATION: You will believe a washed-up actor can fly.
Starring: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Merritt Wever, and Benjamin Kanes
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writers: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, and Armando Bo
Timothy Monforton
