Make sure you know what to expect--I had misconceptions, and it was a disappointment I would have avoided otherwise

Rating: 3/10 (16 May 2015)

* A talky "behind the scenes" drama about producing a play on Broadway, centered on a troubled Hollywood star making his stage debut.
* There are a few light moments, and a few very slight fantastical elements, but I wouldn't classify Birdman as anything other than a drama.
* Has the feel of a faux-documentary film, though without the crappy cinematography that typically entails. Rather, the cinematography/extended shot construction/"choreography" are the only consistently brilliant elements.
* Does have the typical, affected, very artificial feeling/faux-realist soap-operatic melodrama of most of those faux-documentary flicks.
* The dialogue regularly swings back to critical commentary a la "high art" vs "low art"/art vs. entertainment/"legitimate" vs. commerce-oriented etc. distinctions that I can imagine a lot of fans of the film agreeing with directly as stated by various characters--and after all, part of the idea of the film is that the protagonist is shooting for legitimacy versus the blockbuster superhero fare he'd become rich and famous for, but those views are so much b.s. in my view, and thus, for me, that dialogue came across across as insincere, pretentious and should-be-satirical or ironic, but there wasn't really a payoff if we interpret it as the latter.
* Not the sort of film I'd usually bother with--the genre isn't really my bag. I don't like to know too much info prior to watching anything, though, so it's partially my fault for expecting something in the vein of Defendor (2009) or Super (2010), both of which I like a lot.
* Co-recommendations: Black Swan (2010), Synecdoche New York (2008), Noises Off... (1992), Persona (1966), Floating Weeds (1959), Children of Paradise (1945). (Noises Off... is the only one of those that I'm personally a fan of. In fact, it would be on a short list of my favorite films.)