A virtual theatrical experience

Rating: 10/10 (30 October 2017)

Every now and then a film will perfectly illustrate an art form not yet showcased on screen. For example, Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan for dancers or Damien Chazelle's Whiplash for musicians, and now Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman for actors. The seamlessly visceral one-take wonder is what made this project immediately a unique experience. Now, of course, there are obvious spots that do suggests cuts have been made but it never detaches you from the action. It flows fluidly, always shifting gears at every corner, making this an organic and lively watch, almost as if you were witnessing a theatrical performance.
We begin with our lead character Riggan, played by Michael Keaton, levitating off the ground in his dressing room in a meditative pose. This already suggests it isn't going to be an ordinary flick with formulaic characters. From there, the camera weaves along, flowing from scene to scene aqueously without any pause as the score presents itself in the form of beats, as if the drummer was improvising the whole picture. Each character is then presented, as wacky and fresh as the next, perfectly acted from a star studded cast, in particular Edward Norton who steals almost every scene.
But let me make this clear, this is Michael Keaton's movie, almost in a literal sense, playing an aged out actor who once was a Hollywood star that donned the famous Birdman suit (Can you see the correlation here?) Now, no longer a household name and only remembered by an older generation, he tries to make a comeback in a bold way, by adapting, directing and performing in his own stage production that could break the chains and make him into the artist he's always aspired to be. Keaton puts on a mesmerising performance that is as moving as Inurratu's camera-work, showing a plethora of emotions that will encapsulate your own.
This movie serves up everything you'd want out of it in a silver platter. It is groundbreaking, almost to the point of being pure magic. It's a theatrical moving picture that reinvents the definition of cinema and why we need it so much.