Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 3.5

A movie actor (Michael Keaton) who has starred in big-budget popcorn movies (as "Birdman," echoing Keaton's own past as Batman) spends a lot of his own money on producing and starring in a Broadway play (based on a collection of Raymond Carver short stories) but is met by resistance (from outside voices ... and a voice in his own head) that makes him question his own talent and place in a society being revolutionized by social media. The decision by Iñárritu to shoot it in one (simulated) long take at first struck me as being a needless trick, however I found that it complements the magical realism of the material (it even starts with Keaton floating in mid-air and suggests he 'possesses' telekinetic powers) nicely: it feels like a dizzying dream world. All actors (but particularly Edward Norton as an eccentric, if experienced stage performer) are in marvelous form (it's nice to see Keaton back in a starring role after so much time has passed) and it's also refreshing to watch a major filmmaker deeply concerned with the grotesque number of superhero movies being made and 'viral' videos being produced and back to asking fundamental questions about the importance of (Real) Art versus Entertainment. It's a rare 'mainstream' movie that has (very) experimental tendencies, but Iñárritu is at least attempting to ask hard questions about Our Culture ... and only in New York City would you hear someone drunkenly screaming a soliloquy from Macbeth in the middle of the night.