fickle industry leads to a very interesting movie

Rating: 9/10 (8 March 2015)

Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" recently won Best Picture. Now that I've seen "Birdman", it's going to take some explaining. Michael Keaton stars as a washed-up actor known for playing a superhero - sounds like a reference to Keaton's role as Batman, doesn't it? - attempting a comeback by starring in a Broadway adaptation of a Raymond Carver story. The actor is nearly at the end of his rope, exacerbated by the people surrounding him. Meanwhile, the superhero won't leave him alone.
The movie is filmed primarily as one long shot, as though the audience is directly witnessing the action. And boy is there some action to witness! Overall the movie focuses on the entertainment industry's fickleness (of which the industry's ageism is a symptom), the issue of typecasting, and the abundant egomania. As Samantha tells Riggan, the play is a vanity project. The movie gets more and more surreal as it progresses, with the contrast between Riggan's mental breakdown and presumed superpowers growing more apparent.
I don't know whether or not this was 2014's best movie. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Boyhood" were also really good, but I haven't seen many of last year's movies. But without a doubt I can say that Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography deserved its win. In the end this is a movie that I highly recommend. And I hope that everyone paid attention to Alejandro González Iñárritu's reminder that the United States is an immigrant nation.