Interestingly Weird

Rating: 6/10 (15 November 2014)

I saw "Birdman:or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance", starring Michael Keaton-Robocop_2014, Batman_1989; Edward Norton-The Incredible Hulk_2008, Fight Club; Emma Stone-The Amazing Spider-Man_2012, The House Bunny and Zach Galifianakis-The Hangover movies, Tru Calling_tv.
This is an interestingly weird movie. It's directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-Biutiful, Babel, 21 Grams. From what I had heard about the film, it sounded interesting, but by the time it was over, I just did not get it. Michael plays an actor that was big back in the 1990's for playing a super hero called Birdman. He made three Birdman movies and was offered a forth but decided that he had had enough of the character and said no-sounds close to what really happened with Michael and the Batman series. Now, he wants to direct and star in a Broadway play to show everyone that he is a real actor and can do serious material. The weird part comes in when Michael starts hallucinating-at least, that is what I understood it to be-conversations with his Birdman character. Michael also displays telekinetic powers-or is he just hallucinating?-like moving objects, just by looking at them and turning things on and off, with a wave of his hand. Emma plays Michael's daughter, who has recently gotten out of drug rehab and is now helping her father as an assistant or gofer. Zach plays Michael's manager and Edward is another actor in the play. One of the interesting tidbits is that most of the movie looks like it was shot in one take. There are a couple of places where you can tell there are cuts but for the most part, it looks like just one long take. It's rated "R" for language, sexual content-partial nudity-and violence and has a running time of 1 hour & 59 minutes. I don't think I would buy it on DVD but it is interesting enough to be a rental.