Mexican writer, director, producer, editor and more, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu exploded onto the international scene with Amores Peros (Love is a Bitch) in 2000. It had interweaving tales of people, their love relationships and their dogs in Mexico City - this would become a style of his that he would map onto a global tale in Babel. Now Inarritu brings us his most ambitious film to date both via form and content in, Birdman. Let's dig in ...
Birdman is a film school professor’s wet dream, it has plenty of intertextuality, tales within tale, self reflexivity, it’s all here and if you are into movies it makes for great viewing. At the heart of the story is Michael Keaton, who 80’s kids will remember as Batman. He plays an actor who used to portray a batman-like superhero in the movies who was big in the 90’s, whose star has now faded and is using a play to show that he can act and get some credibility .
Like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Michael Keaton’s character seems to mimic the real life actors own life experiences, so there are many blurred lines. Is Keaton also trying to strive for validation with this pic?
The film deals a lot with art and artist; why do artists create their work? Is it just to boost their ego? To find validation in the world or is it all driven by passion? Through a superb supporting cast from Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, the different characters embody all these traits and you watch the film wondering which one will Keaton finally embrace.
This film crackles with ideas and inspired performances from the lead to all the supporting cast members. One can never speak about the arts and artistic creation without touching on the toxic nature of commercialization of the arts and its soul sucking effects.
At some level Birdman is a critique of the superhero genre, how the genre tends to appeal to the lowest common denominator; style (in this case; action) over substance (story, character and real world issues). If you are a comic book nerd or film aficionado, you’ll dig the witty references that are made about today's cinema and Hollywood celebrity culture. Why these films keep making tons of money and what keeps them going.
Yet you’d think reading the above that Birdman will be depressing and heavy but the total opposite is true of it. It’s filled with creative energy and wit. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments and witty quips in this film, which are taken a notch-up by the creativity. From mixing realism with the imagined, to create a hyper-real reality, whereby the line between what is real and fantasy is utterly blurred.
This is enhanced by the effect that the film feels like one long take with no cuts - the mind boggles when you start thinking of the technicality of creating such a feat. Yet the effects are not done for effects sake but are part of the storytelling.
The long take can also be seen as a way to give the audience a sense that you are watching a world unravel in real time but also a sense that you are in Keaton's head, whereby, like dreams, there are no cuts to our dream state as humans.
This is probably going to be one of the best films to come out of 2015 (2014 if you are in the US). Birdman is gutsy, creative and ashamed of itself. A human drama about creating a play with the passion and guts of Fight Club, is a definite must see.
Rating *****
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index
* Junk **Almost bearable ***Now we cooking **** Almost perfect ***** Classic
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Trailer watch
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