Birdman (2014)

“Popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige.” – Mike Shiner

 Number of Times Seen – 1 (8 Jan 2015)

Brief Synopsis – A washed up actor who formally played a superhero risks his career trying to write/direct and act on the New York theatrical stage in an attempt to come back into the audience’s favor.

My Take on it – I actually find it very interesting that the two Oscar Best Picture frontrunners are both use ‘gimmicks’ to get us to believe how real the story is. Boyhood (2014) uses the idea of filming over a decade to perfectly capture the aging process of its characters but more importantly its young characters to (for one of the first times ever) literally have us watch them grow up in front of us.

This movie, edits together super-long shots in order to give us the feeling and impression that it is one continuous shot.

It’s amazing to watch and required a lot of work from all of the actors and crew to make it work so well.

The camera sometimes wanders from character to character and even sometimes just lingers in a hallway to let us eavesdrop on conversations or theater audience reactions.

The theme of the movie reminded me a lot of All About Eve (1950) in the way that it cleverly uses the theater as a stand in for the movie industry.

Choosing Michael Keaton for the lead was a genius move since we can all relate to him because of him having a background as a superhero when he was geniusly cast against type as the lead in Batman (1989) 25 years ago.

Obviously, he has matured as an actor since then and the many closeups of his face show how he has aged since that role making him the perfect choice for this role.

He has a great chance of taking home best actor at the Globes next week and if so, should be in the perfect position to also take home the Best Actor Oscar next month.

Besides Keaton, the rest of the cast is also superb. Ed Norton, Emma Stone, Zack Galifianakis, Andrea Riseborough, Naomi Watts and Amy Ryan all prove their acting skills in this movie.

Can’t wait to watch Boyhood (2014) and this movie duke it out at the Oscars next month.

Bottom Line – Great look at Hollywood actors and productions from the perspective of someone on the cusp if the industry. Keaton is amazing here and was the perfect casting choice. Highly Recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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