Riggan Thomson Birdman

We see Keaton about to start a play in Broadway.

His mental illness

His running mind is built on sand. His defence or coping mechanism is a mirage.

The narrative needs to show everything go wrong over the next few weeks for him, to see the descent of an already precarious mind.

His greatest selling point is the empathy you feel for this character

His person has been completely reduced to his past. He is dismissed as a bygone celebrity, not a real actor.

The scene where he confronts the critic for their lazy labels of plays is actually a microcosm for how they are perceiving him, For all their purported wish for depth in what they see on the broadway circuit, they are astonishingly small minded when dealing in the real world. It is like for them, depth is only found in scripts and plays. They are unable to translate this into the lives of real people.

If you put yourself in his shows, he was an actor who was able to inhabit a beloved, mega-successful character and become very wealthy

We dont know his true motivations. Maybe, Probably, he didn't set out his career to just be in popcorn flicks

The harshness of critics is as much about jealousy as it is about integrity.

It is the subtlety of his everyday interaction with other people vs his chaotic inner mind which is what makes him so compelling.

The over-stated dramatic inner monologue is great at showing how a big dream or perceived moment in life is felt felt by a person, vs the dreary reality of putting on a fake wig and having to repeat the same play over and over again.

The perceived importance is always like a baloon; it is punctured so very easily when it is faced with Ed Norton 'don't give a fuck' types. The perceived importance is transmuted into farce so quickly. Same in real life.

He is chastised by his daughter for trying to be relavent, but also ignoring or dismissing the younger generations efforts of trying to be relevant. She has a point

He could just make his play, but instead of that, he wants to be recognised by people who contextually cant see his motivation as anything other than someone who wants to have his cake and eat it. (REthink this)