Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Country: US/CAN
Technical: col 119m
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Cast: Michael Keaton, Andrea Riseborough, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone
Synopsis:
A washed-up Hollywood star attempts to transform the pieces of his shattered personal life into a successful Broadway play, based on the writings of Raymond Carver. As opening night approaches, and the performance mishaps grow increasingly surreal, he is haunted by his erstwhile superhero persona and develops supernatural powers.
Review:
Iñárritu here eschews his portmanteau format and appears to have swallowed and regurgitated the musings from a Charlie Kaufman jotter. The film explores a number of issues of a reflexive nature: the binary opposition between despised Hollywood acting and respected New York theatre; the solipsism at the heart of artistic endeavour; the protean nature of performance, extolled as the only reality worth having; the colonization of our hierarchy of values by social media, and of mainstream film-making by CGI technology, which the film deploys with offhand nonchalance. What you take away from it will depend very much on your expectations (and don't expect answers), but it transformed the late career of Michael Keaton, which it ironically uses as a real-life comparator. Indeed, the film could be seen as an attempt to illustrate the transformative power of art on life, with Keaton's own courageous performance threatened by humiliating exposure and the grandstanding of a vainglorious co-star (Norton superb in a delicious parody of thespian egotism). In any event, it is full of refreshing bursts of humour (for a director given to solemnity) and the transitions, accompanied by a jazz drummer at times visible to the audience, are so seamless that the impression is that of one long continuous take. A partner piece to Synecdoche New York?
Country: US/CAN
Technical: col 119m
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Cast: Michael Keaton, Andrea Riseborough, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone
Synopsis:
A washed-up Hollywood star attempts to transform the pieces of his shattered personal life into a successful Broadway play, based on the writings of Raymond Carver. As opening night approaches, and the performance mishaps grow increasingly surreal, he is haunted by his erstwhile superhero persona and develops supernatural powers.
Review:
Iñárritu here eschews his portmanteau format and appears to have swallowed and regurgitated the musings from a Charlie Kaufman jotter. The film explores a number of issues of a reflexive nature: the binary opposition between despised Hollywood acting and respected New York theatre; the solipsism at the heart of artistic endeavour; the protean nature of performance, extolled as the only reality worth having; the colonization of our hierarchy of values by social media, and of mainstream film-making by CGI technology, which the film deploys with offhand nonchalance. What you take away from it will depend very much on your expectations (and don't expect answers), but it transformed the late career of Michael Keaton, which it ironically uses as a real-life comparator. Indeed, the film could be seen as an attempt to illustrate the transformative power of art on life, with Keaton's own courageous performance threatened by humiliating exposure and the grandstanding of a vainglorious co-star (Norton superb in a delicious parody of thespian egotism). In any event, it is full of refreshing bursts of humour (for a director given to solemnity) and the transitions, accompanied by a jazz drummer at times visible to the audience, are so seamless that the impression is that of one long continuous take. A partner piece to Synecdoche New York?
Country: US/CAN
Technical: col 119m
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Cast: Michael Keaton, Andrea Riseborough, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone
Synopsis:
A washed-up Hollywood star attempts to transform the pieces of his shattered personal life into a successful Broadway play, based on the writings of Raymond Carver. As opening night approaches, and the performance mishaps grow increasingly surreal, he is haunted by his erstwhile superhero persona and develops supernatural powers.
Review:
Iñárritu here eschews his portmanteau format and appears to have swallowed and regurgitated the musings from a Charlie Kaufman jotter. The film explores a number of issues of a reflexive nature: the binary opposition between despised Hollywood acting and respected New York theatre; the solipsism at the heart of artistic endeavour; the protean nature of performance, extolled as the only reality worth having; the colonization of our hierarchy of values by social media, and of mainstream film-making by CGI technology, which the film deploys with offhand nonchalance. What you take away from it will depend very much on your expectations (and don't expect answers), but it transformed the late career of Michael Keaton, which it ironically uses as a real-life comparator. Indeed, the film could be seen as an attempt to illustrate the transformative power of art on life, with Keaton's own courageous performance threatened by humiliating exposure and the grandstanding of a vainglorious co-star (Norton superb in a delicious parody of thespian egotism). In any event, it is full of refreshing bursts of humour (for a director given to solemnity) and the transitions, accompanied by a jazz drummer at times visible to the audience, are so seamless that the impression is that of one long continuous take. A partner piece to Synecdoche New York?