Much like the events of last year with 12 Years A Slave, local film distributors deigned that Alejandro Gonzales Inarittu (Babel)’s Birdman is worthy of a second run in Manila.  You know, with it having won the Academy Award for Best Picture, ho-hum, why not?

I want to rant about the sheer stupidity of how movies are being shown here in the Philippines but I won’t get into that now.  UGH.

Here’s the round-up:

Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

Riggan (Michael Keaton – RoboCop) is an actor whose celebrity is starting to wane.  He was at his peak over twenty years ago when he was playing the super hero Birdman.  As it is, Riggan is trying to resuscitate his career by writing, co-producing and starring in a broadway of his childhood hero, Raymond Carver.  To make matters even more stressful, the play’s being co-financed by his bestfriend-slash-agent-slash-lawyer, Jake (Zach Galifianakis – Due Date), he’s co-starring with his girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough – Oblivion), and he has to deal with his recovering addict of a daughter Sam (Emma Stone – The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as his personal assistant.  When one of his other actors, Ralph (Jeremy Shamos – Magic in the Moonlight), gets into a freak accident involving a stage light falling out of the sky, Lesley (Naomi Watts – The Ring), the other female lead, gets her intense method actor boyfriend Mike (Edward Norton – The Grand Budapest Hotel) as the replacement.  With opening night on the horizon, Riggan is at his wit’s end trying to make the play as perfect as it can be to impress the legendary theater critic Tabitha (Lindsay Duncan – Rome) who has made known her disdain for Hollywood-ers fumbling around the stage.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Riggan constantly hears the voice of his (previous) alter-ego, the Birdman, relentlessly berating him for willingly giving up the suit (and all the perks that came with it) all those years ago.

THE GOOD:

1. The interesting camera work.  It was very ambitious of the director to make it seem like the whole movie was shot in one take and I can only imagine how difficult that was to pull off, but it hooked me right in and was something that I’ve never seen before.
2. Michael Keaton.  I’ve never been that big of a fan because most of his best work came out when I was a toddler, but he was incredible in this movie.  The man literally went through all colors of the emotional spectrum.

   

3. Edward Norton!!! I haven’t read much about this movie prior to sitting down to watch it so I was shocked that Edward Norton was in it!  He was able to keep up with Michael Keaton in every beat, which was just amazing.  There was this one scene in the movie where Norton’s Mike was running lines with Keaton’s Riggan and it was like watching magic when they slipped in and out of “character” with such ease.

   

4. The cartoon-ish way they portrayed Emma Stone’s face.  Super extreme close-ups were plentiful in this movie and they made Emma Stone’s eyes look crazy big.  Weirdly enough, that look fit quite well.

   

5. Zach Galifianakis was a shock.  I didn’t even recognize him with the neat beard.  This was the most subdued role I’ve ever seen him in and I’ve gotta say, the rational adult really looks good on him.

   

THE BAD:

1. The girl-on-girl action.  I’m not sure what that was for.  Shock factor?  A lame attempt at trying to be relevant?

THE UGLY:

1. The ending, mostly because I’m not a huge fan of open-ended closing scenes.  Much like Inception and Shutter Island, the ending of Birdman is subject to your own interpretation.  And because I’m a natural pessimist, I assume that Riggan died when the screen faded to black and everything that happened afterwards was just a delusion.  I don’t know, what do you think?

   

All in all Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Innocence was an interesting movie, despite the ridiculously wordy title.  Performances were sublime, and an already unique story was made even more interesting by the innovative way the film was shot.  The movie was an interesting peak at how Hollywood fame can corrupt and break a man’s psyche, and the contrast between the “delusions” and “reality” was shown in such a no-nonsense way that it’s difficult to decide which one is which.  I’m just not a big fan of the ending, which I felt was trying a little too hard.

THE VERDICT: 7.5/10.  I think Grand Budapest Hotel should’ve won.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.