Review of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) by David F — 09 Jan 2016

I don't think I've ever seen a film so relevant to today as Birdman is. In an age of endless sequels, remakes and blockbuster films taking all the money at the box office, here appears a film acting as an indictment of said blockbusters with endless layers of meaning that go outside the film's universe and into the real world, in a way that reminds me of Adaptation (2002).

Everything in this film will have meaning to different people. The amount of subjects it broaches and relevant issues it talks about is staggering, but it never gets too obvious, the world of the film very easily shoulders the weight of all its different themes, from commercialism in Hollywood to its more personal, character focused ideas of insecurity and happiness.

Alejandro Inarritu's direction perfectly matches the script he wrote, as we get long, rehearsed to naturalism single take shots that mimic what a stage play would feel like. The characters are all three-dimensional, they have flaws that need to be worked out.

The actors all inhabit these characters without a shred of ego, Edward Norton and Michael Keaton both embrace their characters who are reminiscent of themselves, in both good and bad ways. In the end we get a film that is perfectly written, a vision captured perfectly and executed perfectly, outstandingly peformed by every actor and that explores relevant ideas and issues that everyone involved in the filmmaking process deals with on a daily basis (but doesn't forget the audience in terms of the execution of its ideas either), making it fully deserving its Best Picture Oscar.