At The Movies – Birdman

2014 At the movies December 2014 Suzanne A. Marshall

 By Suzanne A. Marshall from the December 2014 Edition

Starring: Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

“Former cinema superhero, Riggan Thomson is mounting an ambitious Broadway production that he hopes will breathe new life into his stagnant career. It’s risky, but he hopes that his creative gamble will prove that he’s a real artist and not just a washed-up movie star.”

The acting is tremendous. The story is commendable. However, not having the benefit of a story synopsis, I admit to some serious confusion in the beginning as I tried to piece together the strangeness of the opening scenes. Eventually, I began to ‘get it’. The story works
very hard at drama, and jumps between backstage dialogue and on stage rehearsals with a couple of gambits out to the streets of Broadway.

There seemed to be so much needless ‘angst’ in the movie though I surmise that this is to underscore the stress and risk of the personal and production venture of the story. The sound track is mostly solo drum kit antics complete with the odd bash of cymbals and this of course adds to the tension and unusual vibe of the story. The lead character is fraught with doubts and battles an alter ego who speaks to him for the audience to hear.

There are some crazy little twists in this movie adding to its’ oddness. Still, many will be engaged with the acting and I could call it a movie for actors (As in a musician’s music).

Thus far IMDB is rating the movie at 8.8/10. It’s all about the acting.

 

Download the full edition or view it online