Film Review - Birdman

Birdman is weird. Maybe even too weird. A lot of people are not going to find it too strange to handle, or a little boring. There is a section about half-way to three-quarters though which doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Another 10 minutes at the end must have been hard not to cut, as it gives a much cleaner and more audience-expected finish. In hindsight I think that last section is valuable enough to stay in, but I can see where other people are going to disagree.

The directors approach in trying to film it to look and feel like one single tracking shot is genius. It does make you feel much more a part of the film. In a lot of scenes and locations that you know you shouldn't have access to, you are made to feel much more like you are a part of the action. The transitions are sometimes visible, but often so well disguised that only freaks like me are going to spot a lot of them, and I still think I missed more than a few. He also puts in a hatful of other really great tricks, many of which I spotted but a couple I still haven't figured out. There are a lot of mirrors but I can't figure out where the crew and camera were hiding from many of them. If it was post-production, it was amazingly clean, and much cleaner than some of the other special effects, maybe intentionally so.

The mentions of the other movie stars and all the plugs for the superhero franchises could have been a bit overbearing but again they are played into the story well. The self deprication of Keaton referencing his own history as Batman is also so smoothly rolled into the character that it gives extra validation to his performance.  

Thompson's delusions are also tied into the movie so fabulously that it is easy enough to buy into them completely and even when the others around him who are free of his delusionary view and are showing you what is really happening it is easy to tie together their version with his and to understand how easily he can make his delusions fit his circumstances. 

I was all ready to hand Eddie Redmayne the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in The Theory of Everything and I still suspect that it might go his way. Now I am less confident about the outcome though. I can see a lot of Academy voters giving Keaton credit for this as an insightful piece of art and a great performance as well as rewarding the breadth of his back catalogue.

Rating 8 out of 10.