Monday 12 January 2015

Birdman 2014

I find Alejandro González Iñárritu, the very famous Mexican film maker, a bit hit-and-miss. Over the years I have found each one of his new films a bit less impressive than his previous film. So Biutiful was a little less than Babel, which was a little less than 21 Grams, which was a little less than the brilliant Amores Perros.

But his latest, weirdly titled, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Innocence), is pretty impressive. Starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone (along with Zach Galifianakis and Naomi Watts), the film follows a washed up Hollywood actor, once famous for a superhero character called Birdman, who is now trying to revive his career by directing and acting in a Broadway play. While the story is a character study of the three main players, it's actually the acting and the very imaginative single-shot style of filming that makes this film worth watching.

Emma Stone is excellent, Edward Norton is mesmerising and Michael Keaton is, well, just very, very surprisingly brilliant. The single-shot style is cleverly written and beautifully executed. I'm a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948), but technological and editing advancements of the last seven decades mean that this film stands head and shoulders above Hitchcock's, in this aspect.

Birdman is interesting, entertaining, and very well-made. It deserves to be seen.