One long and technically marvelous take to show us a man's path to redemption, while adding satiric and black comedy elements

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2017)

A man searching for success and meaning when youth, wealth and fame have already turned his back on him, and the fact that he's had a pretty messy life (a divorce, a daughter whom he has always ignored and neglected, and is now dealing with drug addiction and overall unhappiness) doesn't help his situation. But he, Riggan Thomson, the once renowned Birdman, looks for a way to redeem himself from the failures of his past, and to get rid of the voice in his head (Birdman himself, taunting Riggan from the depths of his subconscious, messing with his sanity) by adapting Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" into a Broadway play, on which he is putting heart and soul to get right, facing unstable actors, his own deteriorating sanity and poor relationship with those around him, and a vile critic determined to ruin his name by slandering him and his play. All this shown through one (of course heavily edited and composited but nonetheless very convincing) long take, that acts both as an astounding technical achievement and a way to showcase the vertigo and overall feeling of movement and momentum that the story has, while making the story as grounded and realistic as possible, because life itself is one continuous long take that does not stop until you die (like our main protagonist, but it's entirely up to you if that's true or not).
Why be happy with being a philistine when you can enjoy "artsy fartsy" movies without being a complete snob? Oh, that's right, because I revel in my ignorance, and any movie that takes me out of that comfort zone is "pretentious", "self indulgent" and "artsy fartsy", and I wouldn't touch that stuff with a ten foot pole, because I love being rewarded and hate having my expectations be subverted. Or at least that's what I heard some critics say over here. Even bratty children make temper tantrums less annoying than the "criticism" that I've heard for this film. Forget the beautiful and elaborate cinematography (people take everything for granted these days and don't think about the effort and passion that went into it, or how it complements the story, just "muh motion sickness"), the time this film takes to develop characters and the overall plot ("because my friend fell asleep watching this", hate to break it to you, but just because some people aren't able to appreciate pacing and character development, doesn't mean it isn't there), or the underlying themes and what it has to say about the industry (be it film, theatre, or any other art form for that matter). Just discard it, because regular people feel attacked or somehow poked fun at. Guess what, self proclaimed "philistines": Facts don't care about your feelings. And this is a superbly made, directed, acted, shot, written and thought out film. That's a fact. You can whine or screech in mediocre confusion all you want, or call it "artsy fartsy" (instead of trying to appreciate what you're seeing), but it won't change the fact that this is a revolutionary film that will go down as one of the greatest of moving picture history. And I don't even care if it already won Oscars or not, because a film can be revolutionary and influential without being recognized by "the academy", and both cinematographer and director (Luzbeki and Iñarritu) have had very influential and groundbreaking work (Children of Men on Luzbeki's part, and Babel on Iñarritu's, although the latter was nominated, but lost to Scorsese's The Departed, which was another great piece of cinema, and Scorsese was coincidentally another superb filmmaker not recognized by the academy up until that point) that has been overlooked or not received the praise it really deserves.