9/10

Director Alejandro Inarritu presents a film even more ambitious than his previous efforts “Babel” and “Biutiful”. “Birdman” is a black comedy that tells the story of an actor (Michael Keaton) famous for portraying an iconic superhero as he struggles to create a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself. This film is an absolute smash hit, and i would go as far to say that it is not only one of the five best films i have seen this year, but by far the best technical film of 2014. The score works beautifully considering it’s only drums throughout the whole film. Nothing complicated, and the beat gets faster when Keaton’s character has a blood rushing scene for either anger or humiliation. The lighting is absolutely gorgeous with that stage coloring similar to 2008’s “Black Swan”. There are a lot of neon backgrounds perfectly complimenting New York City, the film’s setting. The best part of the technical aspect is the camera work. It’s Oscar worthy. The film is presented in a continuous shot to give the impression that the nearly 2 hour film is done in one shot, but it’s obviously not. If you are someone who watches a lot of films, you can spot where a few of the cuts come, but i generally found myself amazed how they edited some scenes together, especially during long dialogue expositions. This gives the film a definite plug for second and third viewings if you are like me when it comes to looking for these edits. The acting is totally brilliant with Keaton leading the charge for his best starring role ever. He is joined by A-listers like Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Zach Galifanakis, and Lindsay Duncan. Norton is phenominal in the role of a play actor who is clearly better than the play he is starring in. Norton and Keaton’s interraction is so dualy time dedicated that you often find yourself being lost in the plot of the film, and feeling like either character could infact be the main protagonist. Keaton is easily the lead during the first act of the film, but we find more screen time being dedicated to Norton during the second act, and it all comes full circle in the play that Keaton directs when Norton takes charge of it. It all feels like art immitating life, and it’s all incredible considering it’s being written by first time writer Alexander Dinelaris. The film has a pitch to give to the audience to ask the question if Keaton is insane or if he really has become this Birdman character that made him famous over twenty years ago. Keaton is no doubt the only choice for a role like this. Besides the obvious comparisons to Batman (1989), Keaton’s longevity in film has taken the same twists and turns as his character in this movie. It feels like both the actor and the character are getting their long awaited big break, and the irony couldn’t be sweeter. There are a lot of parts in the film that are very surreal with the Birdman character, but my reading into these scenes is that they serve more as a life being breathed back into the dead soul. For instance, Keaton moves things with his mind in the beginning of the film. This serves as a light breather that the Birdman is still inside of him just dying to get out. When Keaton starts flying around New York City, the Birdman inside of him has taken over. He’s not really flying because he imagines himself flying to the theater when a Taxi driver stops him inside to ask him for the money he owes. It was obvious to me that he wasn’t literally flying, but instead these scenes represented what was going on inside. It’s reasons like this why it’s hard for me to recommend this film to the casual film fan. They won’t understand a lot of the metaphors, and will come to that the film is too weird for them. I definitely recommend the movie to anyone willing to get lost in character dialogue and good psychological building. There is a man being ripped apart at the seams here, and each little object in the road is building towards something bigger. I wanted to give this film a 10/10, and the only reason i didn’t is because the last ten minutes aren’t as good as the previous 104. I won’t spoil the ending, but i was pulling for the original ending that the film presented and seemed to be moving towards. With the ending going an opposite direction, i felt it ruined a perfect film. I loved that the film seemed to be poking fun at a lot of people in Hollywood, but film critics in particular. There seems to be a dark comedy commentary going on with the actors finally getting to leash out at some of their real life haters. The film making of this movie went above and beyond my expectations and left me transfixed from movement to movement among the character.