Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) movie review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic reviews....

Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a film about a washed up actor named Riggan Thompson, who used to play a famed superhero called Birdman, who's attempting to make a comeback by directing a broadway show. Riggan is played by Michael Keaton, who used to play a famed superhero called Batman. I have no doubt that casting decision was totally 100% on purpose. The film was written & directed by Alejando Iñárritu, who's previous works include Babel & 21 Grams. As well as Michael Keaton, the film also stars Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zack Galifanackis, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, and Amy Ryan.

First off, I gotta talk about Michael Keaton in this movie. There were a few really good performances in this movie, some oscar worthy performances, and Michael Keaton was certainly one of them. He was incredibly believable as this character, and does a great job playing him, and has a lot of great comedic moments. Another oscar worthy performance in this film comes from Edward Norton, who I think could go as far as to win the oscar for his performance here, he is brilliant. His character is this kind of Daniel Day-Lewis style extreme method actor, he gets a tan for the role, he drinks actual gin on set, he's the kind of actor who goes the extra mile in the performance, and Edward Norton plays it perfectly, and hilariously at that.

The writing in this film is also another highlight of it, with dialogue that just works. I like seeing that in a movie, when the dialogue and the characters just work. Not to mention, this movie is seriously funny, and has some incredibly memorable moments. Every actor in this movie clicks, and the way the film is stringed together is incredibly fluid. However, plot-wise, the film lasts for a while but takes a dip near the end. It's not bad per-say, but it's a bit odd. I really don't like using the word pretentious, but I feel like in this situation, for lack of a better word, it's pretentious.

Something a lot of people have talked about, and I'm going to confirm right now is that the film all looks like one consistent ongoing shot, nearly the whole way through. Every scene is spliced together to look like it's one shot, like the whole movie was filmed in one take. Obviously, it wasn't all filmed in one take, but the cuts between shots are almost impossible to notice. One, because it's almost seamless and done at just the right time, but also because I'm probably not actually paying attention to when shots are happening, because I'm looking at the cinematography of the movie. There have been a lot of really well filmed movies in 2014, and Birdman is among the best of them. The colors and lighting in this film are near-perfect, and are done so well.

Final Rating
Birdman is a fantastic movie, with great performances, great cinematography, great writing, and it all looks like one shot, which is really impressive, especially for a film as low budget as this. The fact that it all looks like one take makes it feel incredibly real, and the film is really engaging. I'd say, if you've got the time, go see Birdman.

Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance): 4.5/5