Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
I'd like to think that Alejandro González Iñárritu decided to shoot Birdman in the way that he did -- as though it were one long, continuous take -- to thumb his nose at fellow Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón and his long takes in films like Children of Men and Gravity: "no, this is a long take".
In any case, the story of Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) -- Hollywood actor famed for playing brooding comic-book hero "Birdman" in the late 1980s/early 1990s -- putting on a Raymond Carver adaptation on Broadway is sensational. He's beset on all sides by primadonnas (Edward Norton), children (Emma Stone) and his own hallucinations; even his apparent psychic abilities (?!) are of no assistance.
Whether it's magical realism or egomania is never quite clear, but in either case it's a marvellous, engaging journey into the acting process.
It's a crime that Antonio Sanchez's drum score has been ruled ineligible for the Oscar.