#alternate spotlight * * Place an advert * Buy a photo * Local Projects * Plus Rewards * Puzzles * Like us * Follow us Login Register Nottingham Post [] ° (*) Site ( ) Directory ____________________Search Phrase (BUTTON) * * News * Sport * What's On * Jobs * Property * Cars * Directory * Offers * Notices * Buy&Sell * Dating * Subscribe * ALL Film review: Birdman (15) By NottmPostEG | Posted: December 29, 2014 * [9253679-large.jpg] Michael Keaton VIEW GALLERY Film review: Birdman (15) (BUTTON) X * Share Tweet Share Pin It Email ____________________ Copy link to paste in your message / * [9253679.jpg] Michael Keaton * [9253680.jpg] Michael Keaton and Edward Norton * [9253681.jpg] Michael Keaton and Emma Stone * [9253679-thumb.jpg] * [9253680-thumb.jpg] * [9253681-thumb.jpg] * Batman to Birdman: Michael Keaton on his latest film role Batman to Birdman: Michael Keaton on his latest film role 1 * What will be the big films of 2015? What will be the big films of 2015? 4 * Top 20 films of 2014 - according to movie geek Neil White Top 20 films of 2014 - according to movie geek Neil White 21 Comments (0) According to Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, two founding fathers of method acting, the best performers possess the rare ability to channel deeply personal recollections and emotions through their characters. These actors don't just play a role as written, they share every breath and straining sinew with their alter ego. In Birdman, Michael Keaton inhabits the role of a middle-aged Hollywood star, whose glory days as a big screen superhero are long behind him. It's the role of a lifetime for Keaton - the role of his lifetime, no less, nodding and winking to his two stints behind Batman's cowl under director Tim Burton in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Related content * Batman to Birdman: Michael Keaton on his latest film role * What will be the big films of 2015? * Top 20 films of 2014 - according to movie geek Neil White * Do you know the year this video in Nottingham was filmed? * 'I was Angelina Jolie's son now I'm Stephen Hawking' * Nottingham weather: Temperatures set to soar on New Year's Day * Film review: Foxcatcher (15) * Film review: Into The Woods (PG) * Film review: Taken 3 (12A) * Oscars 2015: British actor scoops best actor prize as Birdman takes home the most top awards. Art and real life playfully blur in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's technically dazzling comedy, which was shot on location in New York. In one of the film's bravura handheld sequences, Keaton strides purposefully through crowded, neon-lit Times Square in just his underpants as tourists clamour with their mobile devices. Literally and figuratively, he bares his soul. Inarritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who deservedly won an Oscar for sci-fi thriller Gravity, meticulously splice together each interlude to resemble a single, unbroken 119-minute shot. If you look closely, you can see the joins but, as a feat of split-second timing, balletic choreography and directorial brio, Birdman is jaw-dropping - right down to the moment the camera casually pans to a drummer on the street playing the same beats and rolls of Antonio Sanchez's improvised jazz score. Riggan Thomson (Keaton) rose to fame playing a superhero called Birdman in three blockbuster films. Twenty years later, he masterminds a comeback with nervy producer Jake (Zach Galifianakis) by directing, writing and starring in a Broadway production of Raymond Carver's short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. As opening night approaches and revered critics including Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan) prepare to deliver their waspish verdict, petty squabbles between Riggan and his cast - popular Broadway star Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), leading lady Lesley (Naomi Watts) and current squeeze Laura (Andrea Riseborough) - threaten to derail the vanity project. The leading man struggles to keep personal demons at bay, exacerbated by fractious exchanges with his spirited daughter Sam (Emma Stone). Accompanied by a rambling voiceover from Riggan that reflects the character's mental unravelling, Birdman is a wickedly funny satire of a world of overinflated egos and barely concealed vices. Performances are uniformly excellent, from Keaton's career-revitalising turn to Stone's fearless portrayal of a recovering drug addict and Norton's hilarious embodiment of an artist, who believes that, "popularity is just the slutty little cousin of prestige". Peppered with affectionate verbal barbs aimed at Hollywood's current glitterati, Inarritu's picture is crammed to bursting with self-referential treats that demand a second and third viewing. Birdman is the post-Christmas gift that keep on giving. Birdman opens in cinemas on New Year's Day Rating: 9/10 Running time: 119 mins Parental advisory: Swearing, violence * * Report this article Read more from Nottingham Post * Most Recent * Most Commented * Most Read * Thumbnail image Indoor gardens, TV screen panels and cooktop extractors coming to... * Thumbnail image Take Me Out: Jade unimpressed with this week's single men * Thumbnail image Call the Midwife star: 'I feel very worried that people don't... * Thumbnail image Take a sneak peek inside Nottingham's newest bar: Revolució... * Thumbnail image Dermot O'Leary gearing up for new adventure in The Getaway Car * Thumbnail image Former bandmates of popular Nottingham musician to reunite for... * Default image £250 million revamp of intu Broadmarsh area to start Friday - but brace yourself for... * Default image ‘Flash in the sky’ filmed above Nottinghamshire road – what was it? * Default image Spooky lights spotted in abandoned Sneinton tower block Do you have something to say? 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