There are few movies I have seen I can say are perfect. “Birdman” is one of those. When I say perfect, I mean there is nothing wasted in this film. Everything felt like it belonged. Albeit some of the stranger bits of the film are not explained or left up to the viewers interpretation but all of the pieces fit to make a grand picture.
From Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, comes the tale of former superhero actor Riggan Tomson (Michael Keaton) as he tries to regain his fame by directing and starring in a Broadway play and keep his sanity in check. Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis and Edward Norton co-star as Riggan’s daughter, his ex girlfriend, his lawyer and an acclaimed Broadway actor, respectively. All of the performances are done wonderfully.
It’s really intriguing to watch a movie about the theater, especially during the scenes when they are performing the play. My mind tells me that’s Norton and Keaton acting in this scene, but they are acting as actors acting in a play. It’s cool to watch them slide in and out of stage acting and back into the characters of the movie.
While the movie was well casted, a second major point of this movie is the camera work. “Birdman” is shot in a way that it seems like the whole two hours were shot in one take. Sure, there are time changes and shifts from day into night, but the movie is edited to make it all seamless and in constant motion. It gives a good representation of life itself. There’s no editing done throughout the average day. Everything happens as it should and the day keeps moving forward. This creates a sense of realism throughout the movie as the camera never seems to stop, but at the same time it is a bit surreal as everything happens so smoothly and without stopping for scene changes. Now the camerawork is not just a gimmick to make the movie better. Keaton and the rest of the cast are very convincing and real in their roles and would still make “Birdman” worthwhile even without the nifty camerawork.
Another aspect to make “Birdman” so perfect is that the story is so simple. Some critics have complained the story is too simple, but the story never needed to be complex in the first place. It’s mainly about a man struggling to be relevant in an ever-changing world. It is a very real and relatable movie, definitely one of the best that has come out this past year. At the Oscars it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography. It is out on DVD and Blu-Ray already. I highly recommend checking this one out.
