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Birdman (2015)
Daniel's Review
‘Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’, or ‘Birdman’ for short, tells the story about an old washed up actor who used to have the spotlight as a popular action actor named Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) who tries to finance, write, act and direct his own theatre show titled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”.
‘Birdman’ is a fascinating film that is directed beautifully by director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Long panning, swooping, moving shots that present very detailed close-up shots of characters quite effectively and emotionally, which is quite ambitious. The film acts as one continuous, uninterrupted story, where the film never, until its conclusion, cuts away to another shot, as it presented realism witnessing the days in the life of a theatre performer and the struggles behind the scenes. The direction of the cinematography is very similar to 2013’s ‘Gravity’, which is ironic as it is filmed by the same cinematographer from ‘Gravity’; Emmanuel Lubezki.
The film has an all-star cast, and the entire cast were incredible as their characters. Michael Keaton was very good, playing this washed-up Hollywood actor who tries to become a more serious actor, instead of a sell-out, where he portrayed a superhero called Birdman, which is similar to Keaton’s career where he played Batman in the early 90’s. Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Namoi Watts, Zach Galifianakis and Andrea Riseborough were also great supported characters, acted terrifically and gave powerful and emotional performances to their respective characters.
While ‘Birdman’ is close to perfection, the film does have some flaws. The story isn’t strong, but the film worked as a perfect character study, with incredible characterisations, thanks to the actors portraying these characters, and the film can get a little confusing for its own good, with an underwhelming conclusion, that will be talked about for ages.
What ‘Birdman’ does do right is like I said before, the depth to these characters is perfect, the film has some good laughs here and there, the score is amazing, great cinematography and direction throughout and shows messages and themes of critics vs. art, technology vs. popularity, theatre vs. film, drama vs. Hollywood action films, and so forth, which is a great time at the cinema if you’re looking for something that’s not the usual Hollywood action blockbuster, as I still enjoyed this film from start to finish, but it may not be for everyone.
Score: 8/10
Published: January 29th, 2015
Details
Review
Release Date: January 15th, 2015
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Runtime: 119 mins
Rated: MA15+
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Nic's Review
'Birdman' is an unconventional film, crafted with a very specific audience in mind: actors, writers and critics. Perhaps it's safe to include artists in general under this umbrella. But for everyone, this certainly is not.
If you consider yourself a casual moviegoer then best to look away now; you probably won't find what your looking for in 'Birdman'. However, if you are excited by different, odd, visually subversive filmmaking, keep reading.
Director Alejandro Iñárritu tells the tale of a washed-up Hollywood celebrity actor turned Broadway wannabe, Riggan Thomson, played by Michael Keaton, as he struggles to get his first show off the ground while dealing with alcoholism and a troubling father-daughter relationship.
Iñárritu directs with a deft hand, making the complex manoeuvring of actors within what amounts to the illusion of a single take appear effortless.
The talent helps, of course, with Keaton commanding the entire film from start to finish. None of the actors drop a beat. Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakas and Naomi Watts all contribute great performances, acting off one another with astounding believability.
Yet to call the cinematography great too would be a terrible understatement; it rivals Keaton's performance as the defining feature of 'Birdman'. Emmanuel Lubezki paints Iñárritu's canvas with the affinity of a well-worn glove.
There is much to be said about the deeper themes of the film, which is intrinsically a film about actors, made for actors by actors. The hollowness of the Hollywood celebrity lifestyle and the perhaps blurry divide between stage and spectator are chief among these (the film as a whole has a strange dreamlike quality to it, rendering the audience itself in a drunken stupor similar to Keaton's character) but none of these would work without the expertise of the filmmakers in front of and behind the camera, especially Iñárritu.
It's not often a film this quirky gets made and released to quite such a wide audience but 'Birdman' is a reminder of how odd is not always such a bad thing.
Score: 8/10