My published review of Birdman. See. This. Film. *********************************************** When Birdman was over and I walked outside I had one thought. “That was perfect.” I don’t think that too often coming out of a movie. Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) by Alejandro González Iñárritu is about one-time megastar actor Riggan Thomson, who left the superhero franchise known as Birdman over 20 years ago and he’s nearly faded into obscurity, since. Riggan adapts a Raymond Carver story into a Broadway play as an ill-conceived to revive his career and the movie details the struggles Riggan has with directing and starring in his own play, dealing with the cast, the financing, the press, the critics, his fame and his family. And whenever he’s alone, spoken to by the Birdman character he played. The Birdman represents all his anger, bitterness and ego, taunting Riggan about his failures. “How did we end up here?” Michael Keaton plays Riggan and it couldn’t possibly be a better role for him, it’s clearly tailored to him. Keaton of course played Batman on the big screen in 1989 and 1992, passed on a third film and then sadly faded away as the years went on. Keaton is essentially playing himself in the film and there’s a number of scenes that are him being called a washed-up failure that are so heartbreaking that it’s impossible not to feel for both Keaton and Riggan. I especially loved Keaton’s voice performance as Birdman, absolutely echoing his Batman persona. And what I loved about those scenes is as a Batman fan, to me they were SO of the comics. That’s Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne talking to his inner demons, talking to Batman like he’s another person. The rest of the cast actually surprised me by how good they were. I figured this was just going to be Michael Keaton in the spotlight, but the entire cast is exceptional. Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifinakis; great playing a normal guy for once. Emma Stone, who’s always great stands out as Riggan’s daughter and personal assistant and has one incredible scene where she just explodes on Riggan telling him everything he’s doing wrong in his life. It has to rank as one of the all-time best movie rants. And Edward Norton, who when he’s good he’s VERY good gives maybe his best performance since American History X as Riggan’s co-star in the play who is dead set on stealing the show. Norton is hilarious as this pompous jerk who is a true method actor, getting drunk onstage and getting perhaps too physical during a bedroom scene. But make no mistake, this is Keaton’s show here. It’s one of those performances that’s sure to get an Oscar nomination if not a win. And with any luck, it’ll catapult Keaton right back to the top. The acting and screenplay are terrific, but the thing about this movie that truly blew me away was its visual style. I’ve never seen anything like this before. The film is edited in a way so the entire film looks like it’s one continuous shot. Scenes seamlessly transition through time but where the camera does cut is practically invisible. It added a sort of ‘edge of your seat’ energy to the film I was really not expecting. Once or twice I even had to stop and think “How the hell did they do that?” Birdman is a touching and darkly hilarious drama about showbiz with such great characters and at the same time the film is truly a technical marvel. And the second it was over, I knew I had to see it again. Birdman is quite simply a masterpiece.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 21:21:03 +0000
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