Film Review: Birdman (2014)
Birdman (2014). Co-written and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The film opens with a meteor streaking across the sky. It then switches to the dressing room of a New York theatre, where Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is floating cross-legged in his underwear. He receives a Skype call from his daughter, Sam (Emma Stone), querying what flowers he wants. This is my second attempt at watching Birdman. The first time I made it about half an hour in, but the rather talky and pretentious nature of the content just turned me off. So I tried again, and made it all the way through this time. I can appreciate the film technically: it's well acted and shot, it's clever how the film appears as a single take, the drum solo soundtrack is interesting and original, and even the CG is excellent. But I just didn't enjoy the story. I've only watched one review subsequently, and the reviewer seemingly got a lot of existentialism from the film, among other things. I didn't, I just saw a bunch of mostly irritating characters that I had no interest in or sympathy for. I'm guessing if you like theatrical feeling films, even though it's mostly set in and around a theatre, you might get something from this. 2/5 (Poor)