At last I've seen half the Best Picture nominees, and one of the most favored at that! I had not been excited to see it, because what I'd read made it sound like The Wrestler with a little magic realism (which could be very good, just not worth excitement going in). Fortunately, what I got was far more distinctive and only occasionally predictable.
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu, previously best known for Babel and Amores perros, must have since taken lessons from his buddy Alfonso Cuarón, because this film loves long tracking shots even more than Gravity. Normally this technique helps you feel more present, but whenever it becomes clear that things have not been happening in real time, the scarcity of obvious cuts to other cameras enhances the surreality instead. And for all the credible dialog and genuine show biz concerns, you'd better believe it's surreal.
OK, "magic realism" may not be the best term. Most instances of oddly named actor Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) floating or using rather un-bird-like powers of telekinesis happen in solitude, and most of the rest show evidence of a nonmagical explanation, especially imagination. Some are all but proven false. Only the ending leads me to entertain the possibility of his dream come true, and when you consider Hal Ashby's philosophy behind the ending of Being There, it hardly matters.
But enough about that; where exactly does the story go? Well, one way Riggan differs from Randy "The Ram" Robinson is that he's not attempting to keep his good old days on life support. Sure, the Batman-esque rasp of his best-known past role continually urges him to return, but at present he's trying his hand at adapting a book to a Broadway play, directing it, and starring in it. This is not easy, especially when the most powerful critic (Lindsay Duncan) fully intends to pan him just for his career origins. It gets no easier when an emergency substitution puts him opposite Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), a talented but arrogant jerk with more box office pull. Riggan's assistant/attorney (Zach Galifianakis, surprise!) won't let him bow out or turn down Mike at this point.
Another break from my expectations comes in how much time the camera spends away from Riggan. Other characters of interest include his ex-wife (Amy Ryan), their rebellious teen daughter (Emma Stone), his current acting girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough), and Mike's acting ex-girlfriend (Naomi Watts). So yeah, pretty substantial female lineup, and it just barely passes the Bechdel Test in the few moments that concern neither Riggan nor Mike. At any rate, while some of these characters try to make things easier for Riggan, they pretty much all end up contributing to his on-and-off breakdown.
Yeah, that's one of the few predictable aspects. Here's another: Ever see a show within a show (in this case, a play within a movie) in which a character gets badly hurt or killed? You don't have to know your Anton Chekhov to tell that the danger eventually will become "real" one way or another.
As we left the theater, my parents didn't say whether they liked the movie. I got the impression that they still hadn't decided, or else they'd decided on "not really." It does present a pretty unattractive side of what it means to be an actor, and not just for has-beens. But it sure got us all talking for a while. In that regard, it was a definite success. And I like it.
As for its chances at the Oscars, well, I think they kinda favor films about show business. The negativity doesn't rule it out, judging from Chicago. I just hope the Netflix "short wait" for Boyhood doesn't last much longer so I can vote with confidence.
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