‘At the eye of this technical whirlwind is Keaton, offering a vanity-free performance of great complexity’

The comeback kids

At the eye of this technical whirlwind is Keaton. Cast, at least in part, because of his own history as Batman and the subsequent downturn of his career, the 63-year-old actor offers a vanity-free performance of great complexity. Talk of Oscar is deserved, and the comeback that never came after playing for Team Tarantino in Jackie Brown is now assured. But his, and Riggan’s, aren’t the only resurgences on offer. Norton, hailed the ‘new De Niro’ when he was igniting movies like Primal Fear, American History X and Fight Club, also gamely allows Iñárritu to root through his baggage, here playing a narcissistic Method actor who insists on rewriting scenes, guzzling real gin on stage and lobbying for a sex scene to go beyond simulation (it is, after all, only in front of an audience that he can perform).

That Stone more than holds her own while ricocheting between two such towering turns is testament to her own enormous talent; her character might be back on the wacky baccy but she sees everything clearly, her pointed words pricking the inflated male egos.

No showbiz types are safe in Birdman – actors, directors, agents, publicists, critics – but Iñárritu’s movie flies all the higher for reaching beyond the insular entertainment world. As much as anything else, this is a film about parents and children, and about searching for your place in the world and leaving a legacy. It’s a confined, claustrophobic picture set in a cramped theatre, but its concerns are cosmic.

THE VERDICT Iñárritu ditches time-hopping bleakness for a linear, if loopy, satire that buzzes with brio. If Mel Brooks, John Cassavetes and Terry Zwigoff co-directed a superhero movie, this might be it.

› Certificate 15 Director Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu Starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough Screenplay Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo Distributor 20th Century Fox Running time 119 mins