Iñárritu gives us another eccentric masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2015)

Alejandro González Iñárritu's brilliant tour-de-force, "Birdman", is a most audacious dark comedy about a cinematic ex-superhero trying to make a comeback with a Broadway play, but that's only the setup. It's unorthodox to a flaw: many will find getting up to speed difficult with its hyper-kinetic madcap burst of verbal fencing amongst its cornucopia of stars (all at the top of their game), headed by Michael Keaton playing the title character.
I deeply love Iñárritu as a filmmaker. His best work conveys a cinematic exuberance that comes close to a Mahler symphony in its scope, forming a synthesis of despair and joyfulness in rendering the human experience. He's made five films to date, each of which won countless awards at Cannes, Venice, the Golden Globes and Academy Award nominations. His first three films comprise a trilogy utilizing intersecting stories, the best of which, "Babel" (released in 2006) took a year to shoot in four different countries, and begins with a sheepherder and his two sons in North Africa and culminates with a deaf and dumb naked teenage girl in a penthouse at the top of a skyscraper in Tokyo. It won Iñárritu Best Director at Cannes, and is still Iñárritu's masterpiece. "Birdman", however, is a complete about-face from the triptych epic to a simpler, more focused drama with tour-de-force directing that shows him at the peak of his powers.
Iñárritu's camera moves everywhere, gliding and flying about (as if the entire film is virtually one long single take), following actors' movements, going through doorways, behind stages, into the street, even up to the roof and beyond -- while a soundtrack of drums underscores the action like the nervous approach of an intracranial hemorrhage. This is a film that demands much of its viewers, but the intelligent ones who allow themselves to sink into the marvelous mosaic of the experience will find something to revel in, and eagerly want to revisit after getting their breath back. A rich, extravagant celebration in cinema that fully deserved the 2015 Oscar for Best Picture.