Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

A film set inside a theatre in New York. Riggan played a superhero in a series years ago. Now he is staging a play on Broadway with his own money; he is directing, writing and acting in it. The previews are about to start and everything is going wrong. An actor is injured on stage, his replacement cannot be controlled, his daughter has just come out of rehabilitation, and a theatre critic says she will destroy the play without seeing it. Riggan hears a voice. His old part talks to him and belittles him constantly, and he also appears to be able to move objects. From there the film takes place almost entirely in the backstage corridors. Dressing rooms, stairs, the wings and a bar. What the narrative is interested in is not theatre but approval: Riggan does not want to be liked, he wants to be taken seriously, and the film is not afraid to show how pitiful that is. The structure is a display. The film is built as a single unbroken shot; the joins are hidden in darkness, behind walls and in the sky, and a cut is almost never visible. The music is a drum solo. It is nearly all percussion and in some scenes the drummer appears inside the frame. The walk through Times Square in underwear was shot with a real crowd. The ending is left open and permits several readings at once. The film won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and cinematography. Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis are in the cast. Alejandro González Iñárritu directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes technically ambitious films that criticise their own industry. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a sympathetic character; almost everyone here is unbearable.