BIRDMAN (or THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF
IGNORANCE) (15)
D: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu
Fox Searchlight/Regency/New Regency/M Productions/Le
Grisbi/TSG (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, John Lesher, Arnon Milchan & James W. Skotchdopole)
USA 🇺🇸 2014
119 mins
Comedy/Drama
W: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, Nicolas Giacobone,
Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
DP: Emmanuel Lubezki
Ed: Stephen Mirrione & Douglas
Crise
Mus: Antonio Sanchez
Michael Keaton (Riggan Thomson), Zach Galifianakis
(Jake), Edward Norton (Mike Shiner), Andrea Riseborough (Laura Aulburn), Amy Ryan (Sylvia Thomson), Emma Stone (Sam Thomson), Naomi Watts (Lesley
Truman)
2014's Oscar winner for Best Picture will come as an
enigma to many who watch it. Was this really the best film of 2014? Well, yes and no. Of course, it's always subjective.
Birdman walks the line between art and entertainment, fame
and celebrity, sanity and madness.
A washed-up actor once a household name for playing a big
screen superhero, Riggan Thompson's new project is starring in, directing and adapting a broadway play based on one of his favourite novels. A pet project which is costing him in ways which
cannot be counted in currency and met with resistance by on-and-off stage arguments with a difficult co-star, a spiteful theatre critic, his own family members and even his own alter ego, a
constant reminder that he had it all as the big Hollywood star of a comic book franchise. Confused yet? The story, which draws comparisons with Shakespeare's Macbeth, is as labyrinthine as
the set on which it takes place, but what does make Birdman a marvel to behold is the cinematography, lighting, editing and visual effects which make the movie feel as though it were all
filmed in one take, with barely any visible cuts and camera movements which flow around the set without skipping a beat (even passing two actors stood in front of a mirror without casting a
reflection).
Everything about the film is cinematic genius, but simply
won't be appreciated by everyone. Like most things comedy, you have to be in on the joke to get it.
8/10