Excellent

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2014)

A (moslty) single-shot movie in the vein of Hitchcock's Rope (there's even a sly reference to it right near the beginning), this film stars Michael Keaton as a washed-up Hollywood actor, famous for playing superhero Birdman, trying to regain his clout by starring in a Raymond Carver adaptation (which he wrote) on Broadway. As the film opens, one of his co-stars is injured on set (thankfully, as far as Keaton's concerned), and he replaces him with famous but difficult stage star Edward Norton, who proceeds to throw the show into complete chaos. Other characters include Keaton's lawyer/manager/best friend Zach Galafianakis, his daughter Emma Stone, his other co-stars Naomi Watts (Norton's girlfriend) and Andrea Riseborough (Keaton's own girlfriend), as well as Amy Ryan, Keaton's ex-wife. Keaton is also stalked by the disembodied (at least at the start) voice of his character Birdman, who taunts him and urges him to do awful things. This is a high wire act, and it's pulled off beautifully. Sure, it's a bit stagy and a bit pretentious (as are all of Iñárritu's films), but, because of the setting, it works. It also helps that all the performances are so great, and it's aided immeasurably by the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki. I also like the mostly drum score by Antonio Sanchez, which gives the whole thing a jittery feel. I wasn't quite sold on the ending. It may have been foreshadowed thoroughly, but it just didn't quite work for me. I don't mind that they broke away from the one shot for the epilogue, but I don't like the way they did it. An excellent film, though, most certainly.