Pokematic Reviews Birdman

If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?..why Pokematic "hi."

As a fan of movies, I watched the 2014 Oscars, and while I haven't sen many of the movies that were nominated, I tend to look them up after the fact. Well, I was at my local video rental store and I decided to pick up Birdman and Boyhood. These were the 2 Oscar nominated films that they had out, and of them, those 2 and The Grand Budapest Hotel are the 3 that I was most interested in seeing. I'll discuss Boyhood in a sort of "Part 2" of this series, because I want to see what an "Oscar best picture, single shot" movie is like.

Before I start, I will not be using the "character names" in my typical style since the movie never really gave me much reason to learn their names. This is in case you are new here.

OK, so I'll start this out with my typical "go over the plot/story." The basic story is that Birdman is a former actor in the super hero movie franchise Birdman, and he's trying to prove to the world and himself that he can do more than just play the big budget super hero by writing, directing, and staring in a play. Throughout the movie, he deals with internal and external demons that are trying to impede him. Some of these demons involve his past, his daughter that has a bit of a wild streak, Edward Norton upstaging him, and his "super powers." The story is interesting, and tells of a world that is much like our own but we as the audience typically don't live in. We all know about the stars, and we will occasionally see them try to break from their type-cast. This shows us what it might be like to be an actor in that situation, and I theorize that that's a main contributor to why this won best picture. I theorize that so many people on the academy voting panel saw this and said "this really hits close to home, best picture." For me personally, I thought it was good, but not great.

Next I need to talk about the camera work. The entire movie is shot to look like it's one continuous camera shot. Conventional camera work is such that you hold a shot steady and when you need to change position, you make a cut to the new position. Here however, the camera flows from one scene to the other, and we follow the characters as they move. When we need to change perspectives, the camera pans to shift perspective. Obviously they didn't shoot the entire movie in 1 shot. There are some very subtle "cuts" for passage of time, and one shot where we are staring at an empty hall way for like a minute, but it's very believable. The feeling I think they were going for was "being there, like you are watching it unfold," and you could feel it. It's a marvel of cinematography.

Next I need to talk about the characters. There's only really 3.5 important characters; Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Birdman, and Birdman's crazy side. I'll start with Birdman, and his crazy side. As I said before, this is the story of how Birdman is trying to prove to the world and himself that he's an artist. He's not just a guy that can put on a costume and do mindless action scenes, he's a real artist. However, his crazy side believes that his best is the Birdman character, that all he will ever be good at is Birdman. The struggle is real. Also, he may or may not have super powers. We're shown that he can move objects with his mind and fly, but no one ever sees him and if they do it's like it didn't actually happen/matter. This is not a Scott Pilgrim universe where super powers are common place, this is real life, so we are kind of left not knowing. Then there's Edward Norton. I don't know how to really explain his character. He's a great actor, and it shows, but then there's all these complex things about his life that are never explained. We know he has some marital issues, but we don't know what they are. He kind of has a thing for Emma, but that thing never goes anywhere outside of causing some drama for Birdman. Emma is similar. We don't know a whole lot about her other than she was a drug addict and is recently out of rehab, and she does this art piece on toilet paper. While the characters are a little under developed, I think that was the point. This is told kind of through the eyes of Birdman. Most of the time the camera is following him around, and we're looking over his shoulder. He doesn't know all that is going on, so neither should the audience. It's a little annoying having main characters that we don't know much about, but it is what it is. There are other characters, but they aren't worth mentioning, outside of Zoey from Nurse Jackie making an appearance as stage manager.

Next is the acting, and I have to say, it's pretty great. These actors handle a wide range, from happy, to sad, to angry, to drunk, to everything. It feels very believable, like they are actually undergoing the stress of the theater and the crazy things that accompany it. From an exposition stand point, we know very little about the characters except for Birdman, but we know how they feel about their backstory and who they are. But Birdman is the best. He does an amazing job as a crazy, washed up star trying to get people to like him, not the character. Like, if this was a real story and I was reviewing his play, he would try to get me to refer to him as "Riggan" (had to look that up lol) instead of as "Birdman," similar to what I am doing now. For a real life example, check out my Juno review where I refer to Michael Cera's character as "Scott." Then he has these conversations with his crazy side like "you're not real, you are not me," and then he's playing that as well. It's really impressive. I also think that this inflated the results a little, because people on the voting board probably experienced this themselves, but whatever.

If there is anything that I have trouble with, it's the title. Like, even after watching it, I still can't stop assuming it's a super hero movie. Like, I get that it's about a guy that played a super hero, but I still want it to be a super hero movie. Plus I keep thinking this birdman.

Also, they missed a great opportunity to use a great jazz song, birdland. Played it all the time in jazz band in high school. Here's a version I found that's closest to what we did.


All in all Birdman is a good movie. Is it the best movie I've seen this year? No. I'd say it's definitely worth a rental if you enjoy movies and want to see a movie about a type-casted actor trying to distance himself from an old character. It's also very technically impressive, so cinematography buffs will enjoy it as well. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and check out my Boyhood review and keep the fun going.