Birdman is one of the most talked about movies this year and its for a very good reason! Here's the trailer:
With nine Academy Award nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations (two wins), and one hundred plus wins for other awards it's pretty clear that Birdman is a fantastic movie.
I know I say this for just about all of the movies I have talked about but if you haven't seen Birdman yet you NEED to see it. It is one of those rare movies that is an amazing film. It deserves every single Academy Award nomination it was given.
Let's start with the actors and their performances. First off, Michael Keaton is pretty much always great and this movie was no different. He was the perfect pick for playing Riggan, the "washed up actor, who once played an iconic superhero, battling his ego and in an attempt to recover his family, his career and himself in the days leading up to the opening of a Broadway play." That is the movie description on Birdman's IMDb page. But Michael Keaton fit that role perfectly especially considering that he was Batman back when people were not into the whole superhero movie craze and the movies burned out.
I know I say this for just about all of the movies I have talked about but if you haven't seen Birdman yet you NEED to see it. It is one of those rare movies that is an amazing film. It deserves every single Academy Award nomination it was given.
Let's start with the actors and their performances. First off, Michael Keaton is pretty much always great and this movie was no different. He was the perfect pick for playing Riggan, the "washed up actor, who once played an iconic superhero, battling his ego and in an attempt to recover his family, his career and himself in the days leading up to the opening of a Broadway play." That is the movie description on Birdman's IMDb page. But Michael Keaton fit that role perfectly especially considering that he was Batman back when people were not into the whole superhero movie craze and the movies burned out.
Next up is Edward Norton. You can never go wrong with Edward Norton. He is great in this movie! He is nominated for Best Supporting Actor and although he definitely deserves it there is another actor that I hope will win it - I'll talk more about that on Thursday. Norton seems to like doing strange movies or at least strange roles and this was definitely one of those roles. But great casting because he pulls it off extremely well!
And last, but certainly not least, is Emma Stone. I used to be a fan of Emma Stone (back in the Easy A days) but over the last few years she has just become more and more annoying. Birdman has completely changed my opinion of Emma Stone now. She was really, really good in this movie. I know that she has done a ton of "fun" movies like Zombieland or Crazy, Stupid, Love but all of a sudden I'm realizing that she should really focus on doing more serious movies! She had a very serious role in Birdman as a recovering addict and she was wonderful! It was not a performance I would have expected from Emma Stone. The bittersweet part of this is that she is nominated for Best Supporting Actress but unfortunately I don't think she will win it. Everybody is talking about Patricia Arquette winning for Boyhood, which I would strongly disagree with. But it was shocking to see Emma Stone in such a serious role so I'm glad that she is at least being recognized for her part in Birdman.
Like I mentioned before, Birdman absolutely deserves every single nomination it has received. Although I do think it was snubbed because it didn't receive a nomination for Achievement in Film Editing.
Birdman is a beautiful film. It's not so much a beautiful story but the way the movie was filmed is just amazing. It was filmed in such a way that it feels like the whole movie was done in a single shot. Every scene flows into the next scene without a cut. The camera just follows the actors through 5-7 minute long scenes. In an interview, Michael Keaton said that the longest shot was 12 minutes long! That's amazing!!
Movies aren't made like this any more and it really made Birdman so much more special because of the way it was shot. That's why I don't understand why Birdman wasn't nominated for Film Editing, it couldn't have been an easy task to edit a film that is supposed to flow from beginning to end without a cut. At least it is nominated for Cinematography! Hopefully it will win even though it is in a pretty tough category this year.
Again, if you haven't seen Birdman yet you need to see it. Maybe I need to have a movie part to make everyone watch it because it really is fantastic. Birdman is definitely Academy Award Best Picture worthy. If my favorite movie of the year (which I will talk about on Thursday!) doesn't win, I hope that Birdman wins because it should win! Again, unless my favorite movie wins...which I REALLY hope it will...but more on that on Thursday!
Thank you for reading my post today! The Academy Awards are this Sunday!! I'm so excited! Just so you know, my next post will be up on Thursday with my number one favorite movie of the year! And I will have my Oscar picks up on Friday! Also I will be live tweet the Oscars on Sunday so make sure you are following me on Twitter - @thrucaitseyes
Caitlin
Birdman is a beautiful film. It's not so much a beautiful story but the way the movie was filmed is just amazing. It was filmed in such a way that it feels like the whole movie was done in a single shot. Every scene flows into the next scene without a cut. The camera just follows the actors through 5-7 minute long scenes. In an interview, Michael Keaton said that the longest shot was 12 minutes long! That's amazing!!
Movies aren't made like this any more and it really made Birdman so much more special because of the way it was shot. That's why I don't understand why Birdman wasn't nominated for Film Editing, it couldn't have been an easy task to edit a film that is supposed to flow from beginning to end without a cut. At least it is nominated for Cinematography! Hopefully it will win even though it is in a pretty tough category this year.
Again, if you haven't seen Birdman yet you need to see it. Maybe I need to have a movie part to make everyone watch it because it really is fantastic. Birdman is definitely Academy Award Best Picture worthy. If my favorite movie of the year (which I will talk about on Thursday!) doesn't win, I hope that Birdman wins because it should win! Again, unless my favorite movie wins...which I REALLY hope it will...but more on that on Thursday!
Thank you for reading my post today! The Academy Awards are this Sunday!! I'm so excited! Just so you know, my next post will be up on Thursday with my number one favorite movie of the year! And I will have my Oscar picks up on Friday! Also I will be live tweet the Oscars on Sunday so make sure you are following me on Twitter - @thrucaitseyes
Caitlin