Birdman Movie Review

It was well worth the wait!

 

 

 

 

Birdman is directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and stars Michael Keaton alongside Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and others. Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a washed up actor famed for playing a superhero known as Birdman, who is trying to rejuvenate his acting career by creating a play in which he stars in. At the same time, Thomson has to contend with his family, his ego and the voice inside his head in what plays out to be one terrific film.

I've heard nothing but praise about Birdman ever since it came out and I have to admit that the hype for this film is very much warranted. Even the way it is shot is impressive. The entire movie is made to look like one continuous shot via some very clever, hidden editing techniques and masterful cinematography. I haven't ever seen a movie before where something like this has been accomplished. It gave the film a heightened sense of realism, it made me feel as if I was physically there behind the camera watching these characters interact with each other. It's reminiscent to a stage play, which is ironic, in the way that its structured. The film never stops, there's never a time to dwell and there is never a dull moment.

I did some research and the cinematographer for this film was Emmanuel Lubezki, who was the DP for last year's Gravity. Why does this not surprise me? This man is a genius at long takes and is rivalling the great Roger Deakins as the best cinematographer in Hollywood.

In order to make this style work Birdman forces its actors to do very long takes in which they have to bash out brilliantly woven dialogue at a rapid pace. Only with top calibre actors could this be achieved and thankfully Birdman is blessed with an amazing cast. Keaton delivers the best performance of his entire career, so does Emma Stone and Edward Norton is equally amazing.

But what I truly loved about Birdman was that it was actually about something relevant; it had real things to say and was constantly making me think to myself. I love movies that reach out to their audience like that, it's something I truly value as an avid film lover. This film comments on a person's sense of belonging and purpose, it's about the strains of relationships between family members, it's about fatherhood, it's about family. Birdman is a profound movie to say the least.

However, what truly affected me was when Keaton's character starts to tear apart a film critic who said she was going to give a bad review to his play because she has a personal hatred towards him, despite not seeing it. He literally deconstructed everything I hate about things some film critics do, things like letting their own personal views on unrelated situations into their reviews and not actually critiquing things in a film that matter. All they do is label things and manufacture quotes that don't have anything to do with acting, writing, directing or anything else that a film critic should critique. I am guilty of doing those things on occasions make no mistake, but I wanted to scream "THANK YOU!" at the screen as soon as Keaton had finished, because I was hanging on his every word.

Birdman is not a typical film. It's a film which is trying to become artsy, whilst at the same time is satirical towards artsy films. It's a film which satires big Hollywood blockbusters and explosion orgies. It tackles the problem with film critics, family life and personal purpose and well-being. It may not be a typical film, but is has stellar acting, brilliantly conflicted characters, witty dialogue, amazing tracking shots and it poses questions to the audience members without spoon feeding them. While it could've ended 5 or 10 minutes before it should have, Birdman was still a movie experience I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed equally.


Rating - A

Thanks for reading,
Matt