Best Acting, Best Directing yes, Best Picture of 2014, Maybe Not

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2015)

This is a most intriguing picture, insofar as while it mines themes previously explored in movies, it does so with an absolutely amazing fresh approach, brilliant cinematic style, and some of the best acting talent on display. The themes it explores are not original -- male midlife crisis, self-doubt about being an artist, and regret about failed parenthood. It also takes a swipe at Hollywood establishment movies, which is not original. However, this movie takes such themes to an extremely personal level in the main character, with a commercial movie alter-ego in full combat with an inner artist who longs for the live stage as an ultimate defining dimension to define his legacy. The torment here is not unlike 'Barton Fink', and so while reiterating that the movie plows old ground, Michael Keaton takes it to the most profound, and thereby compelling level. For this, he definitely deserved the Academy Award and the Golden Globe of Best Actor, hands down. And Edward Norton, as both an intellectual and artistic foil to Keaton's character fully warranted the Best Supporting Actor award. Add these absolutely brilliant performances to the Director's style, which involves the longest single-pull shots and carefully orchestrated actor movement since Robert Altman, and you have a movie that cannot be ignored or relegated to any level lower than Good or Very Good. Was it the very best motion picture of 2014? Sadly, no, not among those nominated, and noting of course that those nominated seem to have been somewhat hit-and-miss, but then aren't voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a real mixed bag anyway?!