Indyfreak's Movie Review of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Not bad but really? Best Picture for this?
Indyfreak - wrote on 04/21/15

So in the end, did Birdman really deserve to win the Oscar for Best Picture of 2014? Well, it wouldn't have been my pick. That would have gone to The Grand Budapest Hotel or the Imitation Game or The Theory of Everything. The problem with Birdman is that it claims a dismissive attitude towards what it perceives as pompous or snobbish or elitist when it's doing its absolute damnedest to ensure that only the highest honors happen to its main character. This is not empowering but rather an uncomfortable suggestion of entitlement that is owed to Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), the washed up actor trying to reclaim whatever is left of his reputation as a genuine talent. Of course everything is going wrong at the same time and all his underlings have their own aspirations or indignant opinion on his effort. Michael Keaton is enjoyable in the role and his best moments are when he interacts with his alter-ego.
What's striking is that the primary conflict (Thomson's feeling of irrelevance) is much less interesting than all the little subplots that end up becoming pointless. His current girlfriend has apparent bisexual tendencies, his costar is a humongous asshole screwing his daughter, his lawyer is facing a potential lawsuit, and all of this is dropped by the end. The humor is appropriately mean-spirited but oddly enough, the conclusion is strangely heartwarming.
The best thing about the movie is the underlying commentary on how superhero films have taken over the film industry and affected all other aspects of entertainment, even something as seemingly far removed from it such as Broadway. The fact that this won Best Picture ensures that people decades from now will know to what extent the popularity of superhero movies were in the sense that people felt inspired enough to make Oscar-bait about it. Had it just focused on that, I'd say it be a great film and possibly worthy of a Best Picture nod let alone winning it. Instead, it felt like a self-gratifying victory lap for celebrities and actors profiting from their venturing in both popcorn entertainment and prestige pieces.