Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu (trailer)
Alejandro González Iñárritu's super-meta one-shot film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) follows a New York City theatre company as it works its way through disastrous rehearsals and previews to get ready for opening night. The film follows Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) as a has-been actor, once famous for playing a bird-like superhero (not without similarities to Keaton's Batman) while he tries to make his way into writing and directing Broadway plays and reconnect with his daughter (Emma Stone). The film also stars Naomi Watts and Edward Norton as actors in the play.
The film is most famous for the fact that the entire film appears to be one continuous take, following Riggan Thomson as he handles unruly actors, tries to fix his relationship with his recovering drug-addict daughter, and ventures around NYC with a seemingly imaginary bird-man following him around. The bird-man character, only seen by Riggan, encourages him to do another Birdman movie and give up directing theatre, but Riggan continues forward with his play. The use of a single-shot appearance gives the film a chaotic feel, as characters constantly speak over each other and the film never breaks away, keeping the audience on their edge of their seats with non-stop momentum building up.
While the film is beautifully made, it can definitely be a challenging film to watch and comes off as a bit pretentious, so I recommend this film to fans of indie and art-house cinema.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Recommended for fans of: drama, The Revenant (2015), Whiplash (2014), mystery/thrillers, Black Swan (2010)
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