[20/20]

Rating: 10/10 (16 April 2019)

Common knowledge would have you believe that 'Inception', 'Mad Max: Fury Road', 'Django Unchained', 'Toy Story 3' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' are the five best films of the 2010s so far. Whilst I don't think that any of those choices are bad films ('Fury Road' and 'Toy Story 3' in particular are great), I'm always left wondering as to why this masterpiece is left out of so many people's lists.
I don't like that word 'masterpiece', I think modern audiences associate it too often with good, not great films. I use it lightly, this is one of only four other films released since 2010 that I associate that word with.
I watched this film on DVD recently after it came out... loved it. I thought it was one of the best films I have ever seen, and I still do. I had heard mild rumblings online that a sizeable percentage of audience members were not impressed with it.
I decided to write this review after watching a video online. I won't mention who released it but three competitors were asked "Which bad film, did the critics love". The three options the competitors gave were 'Citizen Kane', 'Snowpiercer' and 'Birdman'. Three great films. The thing is, after the 90 minute video, I still couldn't understand why the American didn't like 'Birdman' (or the other two films for that matter). However, I can think of several reasons why 'Birdman' was a masterpiece.
1) It's bloomin' beautiful. You'll probably struggle to find anyone who doesn't believe that the mostly one take camera movement that Alejandro G. Iñárritu decided upon didn't look great. The problem the American had with this technique is that "why is it made to look like on take!?". Why not? Not only does it look fantastic, it also keeps the narrative flowing at a great pace and perfectly shows what it's like to work at a West End theatre, it's cramped, everythings two feet away from everything else backstage and Iñárritu used the camera to show this space.
2) The performances are great. No, they are. Everyone loves Michael Keaton, never trust anyone who doesn't like Michael Keaton. I do like Eddie Redmayne and I thought his performance in 'The Theory of Everything' was phenomenal. But I feel like the little gold man belonged to Keaton that year. The Americans main problem in the acting department was Emma Stone... he still didn't give me a good enough reason why. Credit where it's due, Stone was great because she was the only member of the cast who had to properly act. Keaton, Norton, Watts and etc were all great in this film, but I did feel that they were playing exaggerated versions of themselves (that's not a complaint btw). Stone was the only member of the cast who I felt as though was not playing herself, but was adapting to a character who doesn't share to many similar traits. That's good acting.
3) The story is great. Another one of the American's complaints was the story. He said, the story and the characters fell flat. Mate... they just didn't. As my Art teacher once said "You could look at a red box and say to yourself 'it's blue, it's blue, it's blue' but at the end of the day it's not, it's red". You can look at the story and say "The story fell flat, the story fell flat, the story fell flat", but at the end of the day... it just didn't. It is literally said in the film "People, they love blood. They love action. Not this talky, depressing, philosophical b******t." Iñárritu literally talked to the audience. The rough translation is "People don't want to think when they see a film anymore". As the reaction of "passive audience" members proved, this statement is corrected.
I think the reason why a lot of people write off this film is because they can't be asked to think and get hold of the meaning. I think the reason films like 'Django Unchained' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' are considered by many two of the best films of the 2010s is because you don't have to think to hard to watch them (I don't like either film, but I like DiCaprio btw). Their good films, but neither are masterpieces.
2014 was, overall, a great year for films. 'Whiplash' = great, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' = great, 'Nightcrawler' = great. We also got 'Boyhood', 'Gone Girl', 'The Babadook', 'The LEGO Movie'. Speaking of "Talky, depressing, philosophical b******t", we got some of the best, well made and most heartfelt summer action blockbusters in a long time in the form of 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy' (the latter of which being the MCU's best film). However, as far as I'm concerned 'Birdman' is the king of the castle, the leader of the pack, the rightful Best Picture winner.
As far as i'm concerned, 'Birdman' is one of the best films of the 2010s so far, maybe even the best. And considering there is only nine months left of the 2010s, I think it's going to stay that way.
(BTW- If you didn't like this film, but do like explodey-wodey, mindless action films... at least have the decency to admit that you're a "passive" audience member).