About 25 years ago, Michael Keaton made a name for himself by donning a bat-suit in Tim Burton’s, Batman. He soared high above the skies and was praised by many for portraying the popular superhero. However, fame does have its imperfections, and that’s the ride “Birdman” takes us on.

In Birdman the audience takes a look into the mind of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton). Riggan was once a famous actor, who rose to fame twenty years ago by playing the iconic superhero, Birdman (Sound familiar?). Now a washed-up actor trying to catch a break, he is determined to restore his career through a Broadway play. During the days leading up to the debut of the play, he struggles to keep a healthy relationship with the people around him and to keep the play intact.

The acting in “Birdman” is top-notch and the entire main cast is perfect for their respective roles. Some perfectly cast roles include Emma Stone as Riggan’s daughter, and Edward Norton as cheeky actor Mike Shiner. However, some of the supporting characters cause the film to fall a bit flat at times. The film introduces minor sub-plots that play primarily with the side characters. Even with a run time of about two hours, the movie doesn’t get time to return to or resolve these small tales. Some of these stories don’t even relate back to the main plot and also can be quite boring at times.

Besides some minor plot issues, one of the inimitable features to Birdman is that it’s shot and edited to appear as if it was filmed in one very long take. The director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki (“Gravity,” “Children of Men”) is one of more prodigious cinematographers of his generation. He is able to immerse the audience into the film as if you were interacting with the characters themselves. From its flawless tracking shots to the “bird-like” camera movements, Lubezki presents a dream-like experience, which heavily supports the film in its latter half. Other movies, such as “Touch of Evil” and “Gravity,” have grasped the one-take wonder, but never in film has the technique been shown on a grander scale. At points, there are subtle implications where there’s a cut, but the film is perfectly tied together so that there’s nothing too obvious or noticeable.

Alongside its artsy appearance, Birdman achieves excellence with its star, Michael Keaton. Keaton portrays one of most intricate and convoluted film characters in the past year.

At the beginning of the film, the following quotation appears:

 Warning: Minor Spoilers Ahead

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

― Raymond Carver, A New Path to the Waterfall

Throughout, Riggan takes an artistic approach to his career, but is worried that his Birdman ego will keep him from being happy with the play he is directing. Having the film take place in Riggan’s subconscious, there are points where his alter ego appears and criticizes him for taking the “talky, depressing, and philosophical” path in his acting career. Riggan wishes to reclaim his former glory and to have fans and critics everywhere love him, but it’s not possible. As time goes on, he begins to lose the reputation Birdman once gave him. In the end, Keaton’s performance as Riggan is a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination, and one of best performances of the year so far.

Minor Spoilers End Here

 “Birdman” is a film that not everyone will comprehend at first. Like actual art, it requires thought, time, and research to even understand a part of its true purpose. Is it a film about a man going crazy? Or is it a film that tackles the problems that come along with ego and human existence? There are no clear answers in the end, but “Birdman” will definitely be a point of discussion for a very long time.

4.5 out of 5  Tomahawks