On the Last Great Film of the Year with Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Last day of the year and one of the best films of the year. Birdman is everything film should be across all disciplines: inventive, challenging and experimental. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu along with his screenwriters have carved a monumental piece of cinema out of the story of an actor desperate to claw back some of the passion that got him into acting that his superhero trilogy has erased.

Iñárritu creates a fluid style of filming that makes it hard to see the cuts (what few there are and making it one of the most impressive collection of acting performances this year) by roaming his camera around the theatre that comprises the majority of the setting. Characters walk in and out of each other’s scenes as the camera, close and personal, has unlimited access to their lives. Not only is this impressive technically, it mirrors the narrative as Michael Keaton’s actor/director demands honesty in performance of his actors, Iñárritu is demanding the same and is rewarded with performances that feel organic, not scripted. All of this while creating intertextual performances as both Keaton and Edward Norton play on expected media roles of their real selves.

The role of the media, whether in the form of critics or social media plays a large part in Birdman’s questioning of celebrity. Another theme it manages to weave into its complex yet flowing narrative. Keaton craves respect, which as his daughter reminds him, doesn’t exist in the form he remembers. Adapting Raymond Carver means nothing. 80,000 followers on Twitter can revive your career. Keaton struggles to come to terms with this, understandably adding to his paranoia and anxiety. The theatre critic here is venomous.

On top of everything that Birdman manages to achieve, it takes aim at the non-stop Marvel big wheel that refuses to stop turning. This criticism is apt and timely. Birdman is everything these films are not (inventive, challenging and experimental) and as Keaton reels through great actors that have been swallowed by Marvel he quips, “they put him in a cape, too”, knowing the pain all to well himself. An experience Keaton, post Batman, he may have experienced.

That Birdman is so immersive means that we don’t have time to question every issue it prods, we just get taken along for the ride. In a style similar to Anna Karenina (2012), scenes bleed into each other, removing a sense of reality, but allowing the fluidity of the camera to keep moving and mirroring the uncertain reality that exists in the mind of Keaton, a man literally haunted by past roles. This is a film that addresses much without seeming to try. It is consistently impressive and so complete in its aim and so confident in its style and of its form and structure that all we can do is sit back, enjoy and applaud the achievement.

On Exodus Gods and Kings

Last year saw Darren Aronofsky take the biblical story of Noah and turn it into a blockbuster, with loads of awkward CGI and an even more awkward explanation of the existence of god; the film never mentions the name, instead using rainbows, clear sky and raindrops to fill in the blank. This made the rest of Noah, faithful to the story, feel incongruous. It was saved only by an impressive Russell Crowe performance.

Ridley Scott’s second biblical epic, Exodus Gods and Kings, contains many great performances, especially Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton, whose intense and refreshingly modern performances, considering the setting, lifts the film above the material. This is especially necessary in the second half of the film when god, here played by a young boy and referenced as god, unleashes his plagues. While technically impressive, the plagues and the war of attrition that precedes it take attention away from the great script and acting that has developed the characters to that point. Although, some of the spectacles on show here are impressive and indicate that Scott is back on top form (thankfully, after the terrible double of Prometheus (2012) and last year’s The Counselor). The chariots racing through the mountains are incredible, with immersive camerawork and great use of CGI, which can be said of the whole film.

The first half of the film, which builds up to the plagues is gritty and takes this fantastical story and makes it feel organic. This is helped along by real settings and natural performances of, what are, extreme characters. It also isn’t afraid to show the horror that many of these biblical stories contain. Here, a harrowing scene of the death of Egypt’s first born is difficult to watch and emotional. Exodus is a nice combination of Scott’s earlier films Gladiator (2000) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005), both character driven pieces with impressive action sequences. Exodus may drop off in the middle before picking up at the end, but it’s always entertaining and the characters developed in the first hour and the performances of the actors are enough to carry you through the action and care about the consequences. 

On The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Six films, thirteen years and probably over 1000 minutes had given us Tolkien’s middle earth ring story filtered through Peter Jackson and his team. The achievement is astounding and has proved a boost for the genre and groundbreaking in the use of motion capture. The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Two Towers (2002) stand out as the best of the six films, yet there have been successes in them all. That Jackson and the middle earth cast bow out on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a huge disappointment. This is the weakest of the all the films and like the later (but not yet released) Star Wars trilogy (episodes 1, 2 and 3, 1999 - 2005) The Hobbit films always felt too reliant on CGI and Five Armies takes this to new levels. As we watch five computed generated armies, riding computer generated animals and falling off computer generated settings the emotion and the excitement is lost. Impressive, but not eye opening the CGI is monotonous as are the repeated, rammed down your throat themes. The main theme of Five Armies is that gold causes greed and greed is bad. Appropriately, too much money is the likely cause of Five Armies’ lack of creativity and reliance on CGI. To visit middle earth on film is always a thrilling adventure, you just need to travel back over a decade. 

On The Imitation Game

Alan Turing was a fascinating man. Not only was his work a huge part in the breaking of the enigma code, but the omniscient decisions that it led to were strenuous and damaging to the man. His arrest and chemical castration for homosexuality led to suicide and in the years before his death he often reported being followed, suggesting that the secrets he had mean suicide may have been nothing more than a convenient way to die. Dark forces were at play throughout much of Turing’s life and his posthumous recognition (Queen’s pardon, cinema and a road near Stockport Grammar school) are small acknowledgements for his sacrifices.

The Imitation Game, like his after death recognitions, does not do the man justice. This is a ‘please the Americans’ film dealing in hackneyed English accents, pretty rainy streets and quaint upper lip Englishness. Starting out as a thriller, but as it tries to avoid repeating the thrills of Enigma (2001) forgetting to be thrilling and moving into a strange, uncertain biography, The Imitation Game misfires on many fronts. The story here is the man, with the breaking of the Enigma code secondary, yet the film puts this these other way round and the man becomes a thinly drawn figure, filled out by on screen text at the end, telling us what the film really should have dealt with. The disappointment is that there was great potential here, but the positives are that there is still room to tell Turing’s story. 

On Absolute Corruption in Black Gold

A submarine containing Nazi gold is stuck on the bottom of a dangerous seabed and several bitter unemployed men are going down, in an old submarine to retrieve it. The premise for Black Gold is good and promises a decent amount of tension and horror: confined spaces, anxious men and weapons. It has everything a decent horror/thriller needs. While Black Gold is good, it doesn’t make enough of the resources it has. It is thrilling, but never sweaty palms thrilling in the way, say Gravity (2013) was and for some reason, it chooses not to engage with the clearly horrific scenario with conventions of the horror genre. What it does well is provide a study of a desperate man (a fantastic Jude Law), who, recently fired finds the lure of gold an all too tempting and corruptive force. Money corrupts, gold corrupts absolutely. The message of greed is clear, but handled well. The added message of what drives greed, which here is the profit over people mantra of big business (another more costly form of corruption) is timely and paints Law’s captain in interesting shades of good and bad. Black Gold is a decent thriller with a pertinent message. 

On The Drop

The Drop is a nostalgic film, it has low key wintery, Brooklyn locations, simply filmed, but effective for the story. Thematically, it explores small time crime, bordering the organised, but staying closer to those occupying a liminal position. In these ways it brings to mind films such as Clockers (1995), A Bronx Tale (1993) and Donnie Brasco (1997). The oxymoron is that while feeling nostalgic The Drop manages to seem very fresh, contextually. This film is about story and characters and goes to lengths to negate the star power of those involved. Gandolfini seems to be playing to his Sopranos type, before making slight shifts to become something different, while Tom Hardy is remarkable, showing Locke (2013) was no fluke. Here he disappears into the role, communicating all the subtleties of his character (named Bob, mundane and deliberate) with the greatest of skill. No masks, no strange costume, no larger than life back-story, just great writing and directing. Plus, for those who can speak the language of cinema, his character’s conclusion may not be surprising, but it certainly is enjoyable. The Drop is a film to emerge yourself in and enjoy. 

On the Loss of Interstellar

Interstellar is a big film, with a big setting, big emotion and big sound and a small, simple issue; loss. Strip away the bombastic narrative, the magnificent, powerful score and the vast and awesome setting and at the heart of Interstellar is a story of loss and Nolan handles this successfully, which explains why the film carries so much emotion.

Although, it is no surprise Nolan is so apt at telling tales of loss; his films, despite their size and misdirection, are mostly retelling a similar story. This is not a criticism. It’s a good story to tell and allows him to anchor his more inventive and fantastic ideas in the real and connect with an audience. Much of Interstellar’s dialogue is (possibly) to do with quantum physics and utilising gravity as a means of communication for black hole, deep space travel. This is of course, if accurate, entirely isolating to all but the 0.001% of the audience qualified in such a field (and they probably downloaded it). But it doesn’t matter as none of this remains after the film’s conclusion. Take away the stunning visuals and what remains is the story of a man desperate to reach his children. Universal, emotional and resonant. 

Again, this isn’t to criticise the effort as Nolan has been here before, with better results. The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005 – 2012) dealt with a man unable to deal with the death of his parents; Memento (2000), the death of a spouse. In 2010, the fusing of emotion and ideas came together in perfect harmony with Nolan’s most complete film, Inception. Here, like Interstellar was a big film with big ideas (this time about the nature of sleep and oneirology) that looked incredible and was about a man desperate to bring his wife back from the dead. Unlike Interstellar, Inception’s narratives (the large and the small) hung together all the way through to the end. Interstellar’s dénouement struggles the longer the film goes on, reaching a point beyond its natural finish. This is unfortunate, but doesn’t as is constantly repeated, Nolan is making the most interesting blockbusters out there.