Alejandro Inarritu’s Birdman has been winning over festivals long before 87th Academy Awards were even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. Birdman walked away from the 72nd Golden Globes with Best Original Screenplay with Michael Keaton winning Best Performance by an actor in a comedy or musical. This is solid, to say the least, seeing that he was up against Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel and Amy Poehler’s Bill Cosby impression.
Birdman stands out from its competition in many ways. While following the long-standing and traditional recipe for what makes an Oscar contender, the movie strays to distinguish itself from the formula.
Alejandro Inarritu’s Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance stars Michael Keaton as a washed up superhero actor trying to reclaim his glory by putting on a Broadway play. Things go awry, hilarity ensues and out comes what could be one of the most fascinating films of the year.
Is Birdman the best of the Oscar bait? No, but it has a definitive spark that sets it apart from the others. Oscar bait tends to have the whole based on or inspired by a true story tacked on there for good measure.
Movies like The Imitation Game, Unbroken and The Theory of Everything all seem to belong here. However, Birdman uses cinematography, script writing and an impeccable ensemble of a cast to create something truly ambitious. Inarritu’s film is edited to look like one continuous shot with the camera sweeping in and out in constant motion, giving it a real-life tension that makes it look like a well-shot stage play.
We get a particularly charming conversation between Zack Galfinakis and Michael Keaton about the current state of superhero films, grounding us in a familiar universe while at the same time applying it to Keaton’s own life. Just like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood — another ambitious contender — allowed us to watch a character grow over 12 years, original Oscar nominees use the method of cinema itself to inspire us rather than the stories of these real life people. Just like Spike Jonze’s Her asked us questions of what it means to be in relationship, Inarritu’s Birdman questioned us about fame and the massive divergence between entertainment and art-Hollywood and the stage.
While I’m unsure whether Birdman is the best film in 2015’s Oscar lineup, I can certainly call it my favourite and I wish it luck in the race ahead.
