Good movie, but not best of 2014 for me personally

Rating: 6/10 (18 March 2015)

I have to say I enjoyed watching Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Birdman" for the most part. The film won 4 Oscars this year, including Best Picture and Director and had also Michael Keaton probably very close to a Best Actor win. It also lost both sound category nominations and two more acting categories. For Emmanuel Lubezki, it's the second Cinematography win in two years. He lost five times before these though. The most interesting difference to its main competitor "Boyhood" is that the latter was made over the course of many years and "Birdman" looks like it was directed as a single shot with the way they switched costumes, characters and scenery like during a theater play. Fittingly, a theater play is also the very center of the film.
I myself enjoyed the second half of "Birdman" much more than the first. It had occasional moments of greatness and was all in all much more entertaining and edge-of-seat stuff than the mediocre first hour. I may think differently about this though on re-watch. Edward Norton I am really not too sure what to make of him. As so often, he is on the fine line between creating a great character and being over the top, but this may also be due to the way the character was written. Emma Stone gave a good performance too, but as with Norton I am not 100% convinced it was Oscar-worthy. Maybe the nomination was exactly the correct amount of recognition. Anyway, let's talk about the heart and soul of the film: Michael Keaton. He surely deserved his nomination and carried the movie from start to finish. But why oh why would they leave a suicidal guy alone in a room with windows??? A bit of a plot hole here. Maybe the only one, however, so I will forgive them for that. But I also did not like the way how he was able to move things with the power of his mind. With Keaton's past as a Batman actor, this role here as "Birdman" gets some extra significance. This probably also had a lot to do with why they cast him for the part. Had Keaton's suicide on stage (near the end and sort of expected with how Norton's character mentioned the gun earlier) been successful, this film probably would not have been classified as a comedy with the Golden Globe Awards. Actually, now that I think about it, this film would also have worked nicely with a flash-out like the one Mickey Rourke has in "The Wrestler". Keaton also brought the funniest moment to me when he (with his González Iñárritu wig and underpants) ran through the streets and everybody recognized him. (And there's more comedy scenes, not too many though.) Strangely enough, they recognized him despite how it was said earlier that nobody would remember the actor behind "Birdman". But then again, he was all over the press with his new play about to come out.
By the way, if you are interested in other films with a smiliar tone, have a shot at "Clouds of Sils Maria" or "Maps to the Stars" from this year. This was Alejandro González Iñárritu's first film in 4 years and he also had another 4-year break before that. I guess he does not regret these long breaks with all the success and recognition that "Birdman" brought him. I believe it is not his best movie maybe, but a good effort and I recommend watching it.