So this is supposed to be out on January 2nd in the UK, but my local is showing an advance screening on December 28th! Excellent news, gonna book tickets ASAP!
I'm a huge Iñarritu fan, Lubezki too, and obviously love Keaton, Galifianakis, Norton and the rest of the cast on top of that. Can't wait!
Fantastic movie! Without a doubt one of the best films of the year, and the best lead male performance I've seen this year in Michael Keaton. Can't wait to own the Blu-ray! 5/5
This movie absolutely shattered my expectations. An amazing experience. My friend and I were left speechless as we walked out of the theater and that doesn't happen very often. Anyone who likes films would be doing themselves a disservice if they let this one slip past them.
I went into this film completely blind, something I rarely do anymore. No trailers, TV spots, nothing. I've never even seen any of Iñárritu's other films. All I knew was it had a great cast and a great poster, and it dealt with some guy who used to be a superhero. Now here I am, a few hours later, not sure exactly what to write. It is unique as hell, for starters. As you probably know by now, almost the whole movie is designed to look like one long tracking shot. It sounds insane, but it works so well in the movie, I couldn't imagine it any other way. The entire cast is fantastic; Keaton knocks it out of the f**king park, Gali-whatever the f**k is subdued but still funny, Norton is fantastic, and Stone gives one of her best performances to date. I did feel Naomi Watts was slightly underused, but she does great as always.
There's no simple way to explain the movie because it really is a one-of-a-kind experience. See it for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
I'm so glad I turned down interstellar to see this. Birdman is without a doubt the best film of the year and I don't see anything topping it. It totally surpassed my expectations and I swear Michael Keaton gives his greatest performance and plays such a deep character with so much depth. Edward Norton is also fantastic and has incredible comedic timing. Emma Stone, just as Keaton, also gives the best performance of her career and brings a character who could have quite possibly been flat to life. Zack Galifinakis seems very restrained and does not play the usual character he does in films, but is still hilarious. The whole film is very funny and mixes drama so well with comedy. Alejandro González Iñárritu's direction in this film is phenominal, and the cinematography is out of this world. I mean seriously, the filmed to look like one take thing could have been a total disaster but it works SO well for the film. It may seem a little gimmicky but trust me, I can't imagine the film without it. I predict that this film will garner a lot of oscar nominations, will probably win for best cinematography and possibly a best actor win for Keaton. Seriously, this film blew me away. If any of you guys get a chance to see the film, really consider it. 5/5
Very interesting film. I didn't know about the "one shot" aspect of it going in so that was a surprise as well as a distraction as I kept looking for and spotting the cuts. Still it was brilliantly done. I loved how they did the impossible shots into mirrors as well, stuff that the general audience probably didn't even notice. Heck my girlfriend didn't even notice that it played out as a single shot. So on a technical level, this film is going to win some awards.
The performances were pretty strong all around. Nortons first scene was incredible. I loved how him and Keaton played back and forth and worked through the script. A great insight, although exaggerated look into breaking down the acting process.
That said, I feel like the story was a bit of a let down. I was expecting more. The Birdman persona was such a cool buildup but I didn't buy the pay off, nor the ending. It also dragged in the middle, mostly the Norton/Emma scenes which didn't really have a payoff.
Technically brilliant, a great show piece for Michael Keaton, but I don't know if the story is going to hold up by awards season. It also doesn't seem to be doing that well as they are expanding theaters. It doubled theaters last weekend yet actually went down in box office receipts. That's not a good sign.
Very interesting film. I didn't know about the "one shot" aspect of it going in so that was a surprise as well as a distraction as I kept looking for and spotting the cuts. Still it was brilliantly done. I loved how they did the impossible shots into mirrors as well, stuff that the general audience probably didn't even notice. Heck my girlfriend didn't even notice that it played out as a single shot. So on a technical level, this film is going to win some awards.
The performances were pretty strong all around. Nortons first scene was incredible. I loved how him and Keaton played back and forth and worked through the script. A great insight, although exaggerated look into breaking down the acting process.
That said, I feel like the story was a bit of a let down. I was expecting more. The Birdman persona was such a cool buildup but I didn't buy the pay off, nor the ending. It also dragged in the middle, mostly the Norton/Emma scenes which didn't really have a payoff.
Technically brilliant, a great show piece for Michael Keaton, but I don't know if the story is going to hold up by awards season. It also doesn't seem to be doing that well as they are expanding theaters. It doubled theaters last weekend yet actually went down in box office receipts. That's not a good sign.
4/5
That's the one somewhat major detractor I had with it as well, the story, and how it wrapped up (or didn't) towards the end. It felt like it needed more substance to balance against its showy style. I disagree about the Norton/Stone scenes, I liked those. I liked the balance of fast energetic scenes with quieter, intimate moments. The cinematography and performances were beyond impressive, I really enjoyed a number of scenes, it was funny (though I thought it'd be funnier), and it was cool to be behind the scenes of a Broadway play and theater life. The movie is just fun and unique.
In the twenty-first century, no filmmaker has addressed the concept of death quite as accurately or as emotionally as Alejandro González Iñárritu. The Mexican-born director has received universal claim for his “Death Trilogy”, consisting of 2000’s Amores perros, 2003’s 21 Grams, and 2006’s Babel, and with good reason, as each ventures down alternate pathways on the long and winding road of loss. With his newest project, the 2014 black comedy, Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Iñárritu shifts his focus from such previously explored themes as the loss of an individual or the loss of one’s innocence and towards the loss of relevancy and importance, especially over time.
Riggan Thomson (portrayed by Michael Keaton) is a has-been Hollywood actor best known for his portrayal of the superhero, Birdman, in a film franchise of the same name. He is a failure at all aspects of his life and his one final attempt at reviving his struggling career is with a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s 1981 short story, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”. Although he is no longer the actor that he once was, Riggan’s insignificance can be partially attributed to his own refusal to leave the past behind and move on with the times. It is often easier to live in the shadow of one’s former self than to face reality head on.
Birdman demonstrates the harsh reality that very few things in life retain their prominence. Even the theater, which is often viewed as a timeless medium, has a deep reliance on its actors, most of whom will unfortunately, but inevitably, fade away from existence. Riggan, like his theater rival, Mike (portrayed by Edward Norton), will never be able to retreat into the past and experience life as it was then, when their lives were most meaningful to them. Just like Marlon Brando, the Michael Keatons, the Edward Nortons, and the Ryan Goslings will all reach a point in their careers where they can no longer go any further. It is therefore important to learn acceptance of such an understanding early on if one is to survive in the present.
Without the employment of a unique directing style to Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu would not have been able to get his point across nor reach the pinnacle of his short, but noteworthy career. Making the film play out like one single tracking shot, for example, creates a fantasy, surrealist-like picture, one which allows very little room for edits and thus forces the viewer to accept what they see on screen as reality. The irony of the entire film is that similar to the character of Riggan, there is more to the film than what meets the eye.
As Birdman proves, life is a mystery, one full of humor and one full of sorrow. The world thrives on importance and relativity and it often requires a significant event to occur before one is able to break free and accept life as it is. Everyone and everything is relevant to some extent or the other but as time passes on and ages increase, we are all subject to become shadows of our former selves in the wake of the rise of newer generations. Some will make it while others will not. C’est la vie.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
5/5
Linear Mode
