Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, an actor best known for starring in the Birdman trilogy who, after turning down a fourth Birdman film, attempts to revive his fading career by producing and starring in an ambitious Broadway play. Birdman is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu who also co-wrote it alongside Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Armando Bo. As well as Michael Keaton Birdman also features performances from Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifanakis, it's a black comedy/drama film and it's brilliant!
First of all, this is an extremely well written film, the dialogue's excellent, the characters felt authentic and it's a film that plays with a lot of themes, not only does it comment on the film industry itself and theatre and what goes into creating these projects and the idea of art and wanting to be an artist and the dynamic between blockbuster films and Broadway plays, it also has a more emotional, human side to it in it's characters and their place in the world as flawed animals, it's an interesting film with a lot of depth and I really enjoyed it.
It's also very well directed and each scene is perfectly choreographed, it seemed like every shot was done in one long take and it's pretty impressive! There's also an exclusively drum only score which works really well, you even see the drummer a couple of times which was cool, it's a film that toes the line between reality, Thomson himself seems to have powers and you're not quite sure if he's imagining it or not, he actually has visions of Birdman and talks to him, Bridman is his narcissistic self, the devil on his shoulder if you will, it's interesting stuff.
The performances were all great, Michael Keaton's fantastic, Edward Norton's great he plays a replacement actor in Thomson's play and he's kind of the 'real' actor, he's rude and abrasive but says what's on his mind and feels more comfortable on stage than he does anywhere else. Zach Galifanakis was great as well, he's perfect in this role, Emma Stone was excellent, this might be her best performance and Naomi Watts was good as well although she didn't really have a whole lot to do, all round great performances, authentic, impactful and believable.
All in all Birdman is an extremely well made film and I'd recommend it to both hardcore and casual film fans, more so the hardcore fans but I think a lot of casuals will enjoy it as well! It's interesting, it's very original, it's funny and it's engaging, there's a fast pace to it and the drum only score helps enhance the tension, there's also a very subtle emotional undertone to the whole thing which I really liked, there's a sadness to it all, a desperation! It's an all round excellent film and I can't really find any flaws with it, I'm gonna give Birdman 8.7/10.
What did you think of Birdman?