Birdman (Keaton, Norton, Galifanakis)

[Smitty]

Extended trailer just came out. Tempering expectations but I'm intrigued. Iñárritu directs.

[LilLeftBrain]

that was an awkward balls
looks p sweet

[Mercuthio]

amazeballs

[Blockhead]

yeah, I'd fuck with this.

[Jayou Ayen]

39

[Gregg Popabitch]

i thought i responded to this thread last week.

But yeah, i'm in on innaritu until he lets me down.

[samdoom]

this movie was awesome. very interested to hear everyone else's reactions once they've check it out.

[Julius Seizure]

Loved it. Maybe a little heavy handed at times, but one of the most original movies I've seen I a long time. All of the performances are strong, cinematography amazing. I obviously can't review a movie to save my life, but people need to see it. Curious what the curb illuminati have to say about it.

[Employee]

Was CYSED for this until I learned the director is responsible for the cinematic abortion-survivor Babel. Then I read an interview with the douche in which he states that Birdmanis a sort of reflection on how flawed America is, how the right-wing is destroying heroism or some European bullshit, and that Keaton's character represents all of that. I realize that these are probably default selling points for the CYE crowd at large, but what a sack of shit.

Two thumbs down.

[Blockhead]

So you didn't see it?

[Employee]

No.

But based on Babel I am rating it Two Thumbs Down.

[perlman]

Great movie. Perhaps best of the year? Reminded me a lot of Death To Smoochy.

[Julius Seizure]

Damnit emp. Who cares if you didn't like babel? And is America beyond criticism? Should the rest of the world and humanity be exempt from examining the culture and politics of the only super power. Fuck that and fuck you for weighing in on a movie you haven't seen. Easily the best movie I've seen this year. Norton and Keaton should both be nominated and the film is def worthy of a best picture nom.

[samdoom]

Damnit emp. Who cares if you didn't like babel? And is America beyond criticism? Should the rest of the world and humanity be exempt from examining the culture and politics of the only super power. Fuck that and fuck you for weighing in on a movie you haven't seen. Easily the best movie I've seen this year. Norton and Keaton should both be nominated and the film is def worthy of a best picture nom.

[Employee]

Damnit emp. Who cares if you didn't like babel?

Well, I do because I sat through it and paid money for it in a movie theater. It is one of the worst highbrow films I've seen in the last fifteen years. Dreadful.

And is America beyond criticism?

No; I'd just prefer the criticism or critique to be something that incites interest or is born of an unexpected origins.

Should the rest of the world and humanity be exempt from examining the culture and politics of the only super power.

You clearly know nothing of Modern Criticism as the United States was, is, and always will be the Greatest Satan You'll Ever Satan With.

Fuck that and fuck you for weighing in on a movie you haven't seen.

Fuck this film being financed, produced, and directed.

Norton and Keaton should both be nominated and the film is def worthy of a best picture nom.

Doubt it.

[Employee]

Here are his various critiques and comments about what inspired him:

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/-bird ... u-c/361726" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The problem is that sometimes they purport to be profound, based on some Greek mythological kind of thing. And they are honestly very right wing," challenged Iñárritu. "I always see them as killing people because they do not believe in what you believe, or they are not being who you want them to be. I hate that, and don’t respond to those characters. They have been poison, this cultural genocide, because the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and shit that doesn't mean nothing about the experience of being human."

He added: "Superheroes…just the word hero bothers me. What the fuck does that mean? It's a false, misleading conception, the superhero. Then, the way they apply violence to it, it's absolutely right wing. If you observe the mentality of most of those films, it's really about people who are rich, who have power, who will do the good, who will kill the bad. Philosophically, I just don't like them.

So, there's that: He is saying, in the literal and metaphorical, that I am not a person and people like me are not people. That is insane.

Then there's this:
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ ... /?a=109380" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would be terrible. I think there’s nothing wrong with being fixated on superheroes when you are 7 years old, but I think there’s a disease in not growing up. The corporation and the hedge funds have a hold on Hollywood and they all want to make money on anything that signifies cinema. When you put $100 million and you get $800 million or $1 billion, it is very hard to convince people. You tell them, you will put in $20 million and you will get $80 million. Now, that is a [frick]ing amazing business, but they say, “$80 million? I want $800 million.” Basically, the room to exhibit good nice films is over.

The guy's a fucking idiot who makes paranoia-inspired pablum for the Trendy & In Touch Troop. It's hardly surprising a budding psychiatrist would delight in this film.

[Blockhead]

You're spending more time finding articles about the movie that enrage you than actually just sitting down, watching the movie and judging it for yourself. What say you just don't see it and call it a day?
I have no plans of ever seeing :"Interstellar" but I'm not up in that thread trashing it for existing. Just seems like a waste of time, no?
FYI, i haven't seen this movie either, but I plan to.

[Employee]

You're spending more time finding articles about the movie that enrage you than actually just sitting down, watching the movie and judging it for yourself. What say you just don't see it and call it a day?
I have no plans of ever seeing :"Interstellar" but I'm not up in that thread trashing it for existing. Just seems like a waste of time, no?
FYI, i haven't seen this movie either, but I plan to.

Well, you know, I am a seething cauldron of rage. But that doesn't negate discussing the director's motivations and state of mind in making the movie that the thread you're in is about. All of his bizarre thought processes are as germane as the film is in relation to its being discussed.

I'll wait until it comes to Netflix or Amazon; it will be watched. There will be rage.

[Julius Seizure]

No way you're going to like the movie with all of your confused and seething rage clouding your opinion before you even buy your popcorn. Too bad. Even if you think it stinks (which certainly wouldn't matter to me), it is unlike any movie I've seen in a few different ways. I give it points for originality alone.

[Julius Seizure]

Here are his various critiques and comments about what inspired him:

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/-bird ... u-c/361726" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The problem is that sometimes they purport to be profound, based on some Greek mythological kind of thing. And they are honestly very right wing," challenged Iñárritu. "I always see them as killing people because they do not believe in what you believe, or they are not being who you want them to be. I hate that, and don’t respond to those characters. They have been poison, this cultural genocide, because the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and shit that doesn't mean nothing about the experience of being human."

He added: "Superheroes…just the word hero bothers me. What the fuck does that mean? It's a false, misleading conception, the superhero. Then, the way they apply violence to it, it's absolutely right wing. If you observe the mentality of most of those films, it's really about people who are rich, who have power, who will do the good, who will kill the bad. Philosophically, I just don't like them.

So, there's that: He is saying, in the literal and metaphorical, that I am not a person and people like me are not people. That is insane.

Then there's this:
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ ... /?a=109380" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would be terrible. I think there’s nothing wrong with being fixated on superheroes when you are 7 years old, but I think there’s a disease in not growing up. The corporation and the hedge funds have a hold on Hollywood and they all want to make money on anything that signifies cinema. When you put $100 million and you get $800 million or $1 billion, it is very hard to convince people. You tell them, you will put in $20 million and you will get $80 million. Now, that is a [frick]ing amazing business, but they say, “$80 million? I want $800 million.” Basically, the room to exhibit good nice films is over.

The guy's a fucking idiot who makes paranoia-inspired pablum for the Trendy & In Touch Troop. It's hardly surprising a budding psychiatrist would delight in this film.

He's talking about superheroes and superhero movies and why he doesn't like them. Not that big a deal, unless of course you are a paranoid right wing weirdo with an all consuming persecution complex.

[Julius Seizure]

Haven't seen babel btw

[samdoom]

while i disagree with most of what employee said and the approach of shitting on a film that you haven't seen, Babel was terrible.

That being said, Amores Perros and 21 grams were both good, and Birdman is better than both of them.

[VideoKilledThe]

I agree with most of what Julius said, great performances all around, cinematography was amazing (though at times so much steady cam that it was dizzying), and yes, a little thematically heavy handed.

It reminded me of Adaptation in that it's a movie about ego, and self relevance, where the plot is about the making of a piece of art that reflects on the process it took to create it.

Really, really good, just short of great. I'd definitely watch it again.

Also as a sidenote...I loved Babel.

[zombie]

please go watch this movie it is fantastic.

[907]

Looking forward to this. Didn't realize it was the same guy who did Amores Perros, I love that flick. Even more cysed now.

I haven't seen Babel. Emp is being dumb in this thread though.

[Sylissez]

I saw this movie and I liked this movie.

[Tommy Bunz]

Amazing in every way and probably frontrunner for film of the year for me.
Its rare that someone comes up with such a unique concept and then is actually able to execute the idea so perfectly.
Even though I actually read about this a lot before going it still continually surprised me in the directions it took.
Keaton should get a statue for this, and I was really impressed with the entire cast; Norton actually steals the movie for a bit when his character is introduced and I loved that entire sequence with Naomi after the bed boner.
The whole "long take" thing in cinema is almost a full-on fad these days, and here it was used to an extreme but actually in a manner that serviced the narrative perfectly.
I've been saying Lubezki is the best DP in the game for a while now, but I don't think there's even an argument against it after this, Gravity and Tree of Life in 4 years.

[zombie]

What other movies use the long take thing

[Rachel Hobozal]

Not a movie, but True Detective.

Children Of Men.

[Tommy Bunz]

Hitchcock's Rope is structured similarly in that its a series of long takes designed to make the entire movie look like a single take.
Children of Men's long take is the one that Lubezki is famous for but he uses it in a lot of his films. The opening scene in Gravity is 17 minutes long or some shit.
There's too many individual movies to list, everything from The Secret in Their Eyes & the hallway fight in Oldboy to pretty much any De Palma movie.

Goat scene in The Sacrifice, which they fucked up the first time and had to rebuild the house so they could burn it again


Also the answer to every question is Hard Boiled