Why don't I have any self respect? You're an actor, honey!

Rating: 9/10 (19 April 2015)

This was a full film. It had the story, the characters, the little nods and subtle hints throughout the experience and also a level of self-reference and breaking the fourth wall. Also great acting and cinematography. People really loved making this movie and it shows.
I won't talk about the subject much, as it has been talked to death. It's about actors, plain and simple. Michael Keaton plays really well a washed out actor who used to act as a superhero in a famous movie. He steals the show, so to speak, yet I didn't feel the story was about him, but about actors in general, perhaps all people, as actors are caricatures of real men and women. For me the scene that defined the film was the one where Naomi Watts' character goes back to her dressing room, humiliated by her actor boyfriend on stage. When she was a little kid, she wanted to be an actress. And now, that she was playing on Broadway, she still felt like a little kid.
Perhaps it is just a gimmick, a movie about actors made by actors for other actors. It feels intelligent, but maybe it is not. However, when viewed as a metaphor for all lives, people locked in their performances, trying to reconcile their self image with what other people see, negotiating their dreams as they fade into nothingness, it did impact me greatly.
A bit boring at times, it is two hours long, but mostly it is brilliant.