Review 2014 by RD Clark
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Written by: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo
Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough
Complete cast here:
Rated R
Running time: 1 hr 59 min
An actor know for playing a superhero puts everything on the line to produce a Broadway play, with some very mixed results.
What I found here were some very good performances (especially Emma Stone) interjected into a screenplay that I can only describe as self-indulgent, plodding and flat; it appears to have been written by committee and suffers from attempting too much with the limited plot. When most of the drama in a movie consists of the characters yelling at each other or destroying their quarters (a couple of times!), I get easily distracted by my watch. There was no mystery and the attempts at fantasy were amateurish. The cast deserved a better script.
I would skip this attempt at artsy-fartsy film-making, but if you must see it, choose a matinee. There are no post-credit scenes so you can flap on out when they run.
Flytrap rating: 5/10
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