Keaton's Oscar should be in the bag

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2015)

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Birdman" is one of the great films about the theatre and about acting. Ironically, if it has a fault it's that the play within the film isn't really that good, (but then they never are; if they were they would exist as plays in their own right). That aside, in every other respect, this is a sublime film that manages to poke fun at the current fad of movie stars attempting to prove they are really actors and not just celebrities by strutting their stuff upon the stage while at the same time honoring the whole concept of what it means to be an actor in the first place as well as giving us a crash course in what it takes to put a straight play on Broadway.
The straight play in question is an adaptation of Raymond Carver's collection of short stories "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" and the man staging it, and starring in it, is Riggan Thompson, a once famous film star who made his name playing the titular superhero Birdman and who pulled the plug on his own career by refusing to do "Biridman 4". The play is a psychodrama with a central character searching for love and himself and finding neither and it seems to mirror Riggan's own life. He's got an ex-wife, a druggy daughter and a co-star who happens to be a Broadway 'name' (and the bigger draw) and who seems to be hi-jacking the play. The film's also a comedy and often a very funny one and is certainly the best thing Inarritu has done since "Amores Perros".
Michael Keaton is Riggan and he is magnificent. Keaton himself has been something of a spent force in the cinema recently so you might say he has put a good deal of himself into the role. Whatever, this is a career-best performance that should see him pick up a well-deserved Oscar next month. Indeed, no-one in this movie puts a foot wrong. As the vain Broadway star Edward Norton hasn't been this good in years. Emma Stone is superb as the daughter and as other Broadway types Zach Galifianikis, Amy Ryan, Andrea Riseborough, Naomi Watts and Lindsay Duncan add to the brilliant ensemble.
It's also superbly photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki whose continually swooping, roaming camera gives the impression of it all being done in one long, continuous take. Here is a movie that really soars, both literally and metaphorically; a film about the theatre that is unashamedly cinematic. (There's one astonishing moment when Inarritu, and Keaton, play their biggest scene off-screen). This is the kind of intelligent entertainment that restores one's faith in movies and it really shouldn't be missed.