Birdman...I really liked it despite a few problems. Its hard to really describe this film to people. Its like the Ben Hur of theater films, this epic thing you just have to see. When I saw it, there was maybe six other people in the theater with me which is totally not surprising. Its a tough movie to discuss and a tough movie to digest since its so metatextual. On the one hand, its about the main character of the film On another, its about Michael Keaton himself post-Batman. Yeah, its one of those movies. The film is composed of many long takes which makes the film feel seamless and uninterrupted the majority of the time. Its very neat but kind of unnecessary. It feels a bit too show-offy and unimportant to the film itself. Very cool, but this film would have been better served had it been edited with a classical editing style. That would have also helped the structure of the film since it feels a bit lopsided at times. Because we follow several characters with seamless camera movement, we sometimes only get bits and pieces of story threads and character interactions, which gets frustrating when trying to keep track of the plot and character motivations. Most notably, Edward Nortons character pretty much drops out of the third act, despite being a major player in the first two acts. That was very disappointing since hes a great character. Ultimately the film is about Riggan played by Michael Keaton, a washed up actor who is putting on a Broadway play as a means of gaining some credibility to his acting career. All he was really known for at that point was playing the lead in the famous Birdman comic book films. See, does this sound familiar at all? Like I said, its one of those movies. Some people will roll their eyes at how self indulgent the film might seem but I thought it works in the films favor. Michael Keaton is one of the actors youve always seen popping up in random things post-Batman, but he could never escape that. Its great to see him acknowledging that level of fame and then openly criticizing it. The entire film is essentially a giant left hook to the jaw against popular culture (comic book and superhero films in general) and even has a moment at the end where people dressed as Spider-Man and Bumblebee from the Transformers films show up and dance around mocking Michael Keaton. Its almost like a meditation on the essence of acting as compared to popular culture, whether its something to be taken seriously or just more self-indulgent bullshit. It can be a bit sappy at times and the long takes can ruin the plot structure forcing certain things to not have any pay off in the third act, but overall, I highly enjoyed Birdman. Theres also some technical issues as well (bad CGI and green screen effects) but its not too distracting from the film itself. I can let it slide since the film doesnt revolve around that. Definitely check it out if you think this kind of movie might be your thing. Everyone expecting another kind of Batman, dont bother. This film is not for you.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 01:55:07 +0000
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