Summary: 4.8/5. This is an absolute masterpiece. The best film i have seen in my life thus far and undoubtedly a modern classic. If you want a crash course on cinematography and tone and characters, this film is the best case study.
Actors: Michael Keaton, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Emma Stone
Every oscar film these days does something few have or dare to. Boyhood is shot over 15 years. The revenant is shot in natural light. Birdman’s is the most impressive. The whole entire movie is a long shot. This means that it looks like there are no cuts and it's shot in one continuous shot. The beauty of this movie is that even the “hidden cuts” is a visual metaphor. If this isn’t the perfect use of cinematography i don’t know what is.
So what i want to do here is discuss the beauty of this film.
Slight spoilers ahead. Not much but i recommend completely clean mind when watching for the first time.
The story is that Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) is a superhero star that wants to direct and star in a play so that he can be prominent again. He puts everything on the line for it but it just seems to keep failing and failing with obstacles just thrown on. Poopoo hits the fan at lightspeed here. Meanwhile he tries to patch his life up with his exwife and hus daughter.
This movie is a film for film fans. If you don’t know what a long shot or how much effort it takes to take a long shot, your appreciation for the movie is...less. Another area where one's understanding of the movie increases is when you realise how absolutely pinpoint perfect the casting is.
Michael Keaton plays a man whose acting career is dwarfed by his one role as a popular superhero who set the stage for future superhero movies. His dramatic ability is unnoticed and he is fading into obscurity. THIS IS MICHAEL KEATON. After he acts as batman, the movie that is the definitive superhero movie, his other brilliant work goes unnoticed. This just shows how much effort inarritu took in making this movie. And Keaton’s performance is absolutely perfect. I don’t think a great actor is a description of Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton is the definition of an actor period.
Edward Norton also plays an actor who is great at his job but has an absolutely pricky attitude. There is no other way to describe him but as a top grade ass. Again, Norton is also an actor who despite his talents is an absolute ass BTS. In the movies he screams “Amateurs all of you” to the crew, just like he did to the Incredible Hulk crew! At this point idek if they are acting or just shooting a reality tv show.
The direction is amazing in this movie, the long shot, the jazz track behind the whole movie, the acting, the dimmish lighting, all add to this dready, tiring feeling throughout mirroring the fatigue Riggan feels when everything goes wrong.
When Inarritu says that every beat is planned in this movie he’s not kidding. Perfect. Beautiful. Cinematic. Perfection.
One jibe i have with the movie is sometime you are pulled out of the movie because tou are distracted by the cinematography and just think “How in the world did he do that?”. But hey if there’s anything to pull you out of your suspension of disbelief, beautiful cinematography is definitely one of the better “distractions”
(I’ll write my theory in another post this is way too long)
Ok guys, go watch Birdman and come back and fanboy with me. Or just uk fanboy with me if you watched it before.
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ahemahem mr trisno where is your analysis?
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