Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton), a wash-up actor who was once a huge star two decades ago when he played the lead in the superhero film "Birdman." He gets a chance to experience a resurgence of his career by writing, directing and starring in the Broadway play adaptation of Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" which is will soon have its opening night. Egos clash between him and his co-star, Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), while his daughter/assistant, Sam (Emma Roberts), fresh out of rehab, has more than a few harsh words for him. To top it all off, Riggan communicates with his alter-ego, Birdman, his girlfriend, Laura (Andrea Riseborough) admits to him that she's pregnant, Sylvia (Amy Ryan), his ex-wife, re-emerges, and there's some tension between Shiner and co-star Leslie (Naomi Watts). Shiner happens to also flirt with Riggan's daughter concurrently. Besides Sam, the main voice of wisdom and reason amidst all of the chaos in Riggan's life is his lawyer/friend, Jake (Zach Galifianakis).

      By far the strongest elements of Birdman, the Closing Night film at the festival, are its strong performances and the way that the talented actors play off of each other. Michael Keaton gives one of the best performances of his career as does Edward Norton, but the real stand-out here is Emma Stone who anchors the film with pure, unadulturated tenderness and really knocks it out of the ballpark despite that she's in a supporting role. The way that she convincingly displays sadness, anger and frustration when she confronts Riggan is one of the few emotional highlights of the film. If her character were there protagonist instead of Riggan, Birdman would have been much more emotionally engrossing. Hopefully she'll be recognized come Oscar time. Another great "performance" (so-to-speak) is that of the camera which becomes a character of it own as it captures the intensity of the days leading up to play's opening night. You truly feel like you're right there witnessing all of that chaos.

      The screenplay by writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu and co-writers Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Armando Bo feels uneven, but it could have turned into more of a convoluted mess given that it combines the very different genres of dark comedy, drama, satire and magical realism. It pokes fun of actors, Hollywood and Broadway while at the same time it attempting to balance that with more serious moments, i.e. during Sam's confrontation with Riggan and the brief interactions between him and his ex-wife. Could Birdman have been more biting, surprising and subtle? Yes. Much of the film hits you over the head, i.e. the inclusion of Riggan's alter-ego or Riggan's confrontation with a vicious theater critic (Lindsay Duncan) at a bar. The critic's monologue, while honest and compelling, goes on for too long and explains too much when less could have been more. Even the jazzy drum musical score, gets a bit repetitive eventually. Jabs at pop culture, i.e Justin Bieber, come across as rather facile, obvious and cheap. The same can be said for an initially comical scene that lasts too long where Riggan locks himself out of the theater with just boxer shorts on. Birdman wants to be both poignant/realistic and darkly comical/satirical concurrently, but those two roads don't meet smoothly nor do they go far enough thereby preventing Birdman from even coming close to being a masterpiece. The ending, though, which won't be revealed here, does somewhat compensate by briefly allowing for some ambiguity and, most importantly, room for interpretation.