I’d be hard pressed to find a movie I had such a hoot watching. Birdman, starring Michael Keaton (in what I would venture to say should be an Oscar-nominated turn) is delicious in this equally delicious film that moves mostly with Steadicam kineticism through a couple of days tied to the St. James Theatre in NYC.
I won’t even begin to tell you what happens here, how space and time are messed with, what all the flying is about (ooops, did I just give away a snippet of the weirdness of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film?) What I will reveal is that the performances here, from Zack Galifianaskis, Amy Ryan, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Edward Norton (in a very fun turn) and Andrea Riseborough are all as spectacular as this quirky film.
As Keaton said at the press conference after the movie (this was the last showing of this year’s NYC Film Festival), we are all pretty much celebrities these days, we all live in our own little movie. And even though this film does take some broad fun swipes at that celebrity culture (and superhero movies) I felt this was a more personal movie about one man’s journey to…wherever (that’s what’s so fun about this film, the wherever twists and turns on a dime as the movie progresses.)
It’s great to see Michael Keaton in a starring role again. It’s great to experience the wonderful camera work of Emmanuel Lubezki-he of recent Gravity fame-rolling and playing in such tight spaces and it was a delight to experience a movie where I had no idea what was coming next. Fly to any heights, you have to to see Birdman.
Birdman is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and stars Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts. It is now in theaters nationwide.
