BİRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Today I've rewatched Birdman. I quite like the movie but haven't watched it in years; certainly not since I've played DE for the first time. Half an hour in I started to get a vibe that reminded me of the game so I gave it some thought.

While the film takes place in our world, I can see similarities between Harrier Dubois and Riggan Thomson. They're both stuck in a kind of midlife crisis and trying to start over. Harry is broken over his failed marriage and delves into drug abuse and (maybe more prominently?) extreme political convictions (of any given kind) to cope. Riggan is frustrated because he is past the best years of his carreer and tries to focus all his energy into his play to feel relevant again. Both of them are giving it their all to make things right and micromanage the people around them to feel in control.

I know that the scene where Harry teleports to the roof of the FELD building was due to budget and time constraints but in-universe, I can belief that Harry is legitimately convinced that he can teleport. Riggan being able to move things with his mind (or at least that's what we see because we are experiencing the story from his perspective) reminded me of that.

Lastly, while Harry has a lot of voices inside of him that make up his his inner dialogue, Riggan "only" has Birdman, his alter ego, who kind of serves as his own Inland Empire. In both cases, this inner voice(s) helped so much to emphasize what's going on within them and made the characters feel deeper, in a way.

Overall, Birdman is not that plot driven but much more of a character study of Riggan Thomson. DE - at least on the first playthrough - has much more plot, imo. But when you replay it, the focus shifts more to Harrier. You already solved the case. You know who did it and why. The second time around, you want to know who Harry is (or who he can be). And either way, the game is very dialogue heavy, as is the movie.

Obviously, it's not a perfect analogy but I feel like if you liked Disco Elysium, you might also like this movie. What do you think?

Edit: also, the conclusion of the movie ("Ignorance can be an unexpected virtue") seems to ring so true for Harry as well. Depending on how you play, it might be a bliss for Harry to embrace the amnesia and just ignore his past.