Birdman- a masterpiece for the ages!

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2018)

I watched this film with no expectations for the first time last night- and I now think it is one of the best films of all time. "Birdman, or (the unexpected virtue of ignorance)" is a 2014 film starring Michael Keaton. For its majority, it is a one shot movie, and they did a wonderful job making this method work. Every shot in the movie had amazing cinematography and the whole thing was extremely visually pleasing. I have often noticed that when filmmakers try to do long shots (like the ones in this movie), it ends up making me dizzy or confused, but in Birdman it did not do this, it actually made me more immersed and feeling more involved with the story. Every character in the plot was used just the right amount- I got to learn enough about each of them to satisfy me, and every character had great chemistry for the rest of the cast. Edward Norton's supporting role, I thought, was easily the best of this movie. Throughout the film, I felt very helpless towards the struggles of the characters, and I really felt like I was dealing with the same problems as they did. A very small problem I had was that in the scene when Michael Keaton's character flys around the city, the VFX weren't great, I though they could have been better. In the end, the movie had a ending that took me by surprise 3 different times in the final 10 minutes- but was very satisfying.