Episode 35 - Birdman

As Raymond Carver once said, "I hate tricks. At the first sign of a trick or gimmick in a piece of fiction, a cheap trick or even an elaborate trick, I tend to look for cover." Carver would be diving for cover lickety-split upon viewing the 2014 Best Picture winner, "Birdman," with its overabundance of third-rate tricks and pretentious gimmicks, such as including an intentionally bad stage adaptation of one of Carver's short stories, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." The primary trick is that the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, employs is to give the viewer the impression that they are watching a movie that was filmed in one shot. While this sounds like an interesting approach on paper, it quickly becomes apparent that the choice was done out of a desire to show off rather than to effectively tell the story. The primary gimmick is that the plot of the movie revolves around an actor who was a major box office star in the early 90s known for playing a famous superhero and they cast Michael Keaton, an actor who was a major box office star in the early 90s known for playing a famous superhero, to play the role. Get it, isn't Iñárritu clever? Emma Stone plays an angry post-rehab emo chick with daddy issues. Her performance is rife with her trademark overacting and sarcastic attitude. Edward Norton plays a difficult to work with broadway darling who proclaims that the only time he is truly honest is while he is on stage. Zach Galifianakis plays the awkward semi-effeminate oddball character that he plays in every other movie. The film also tries to fool the critics and audience into thinking that it has a deeper meaning by injecting excessive amounts of inside Broadway and Hollywood references. Join us as we ruffle up our feathers and squawk out our disdain for the pure uncut Oscar bait that is this movie. Tell us what you think by chatting with us (@filmsnuff) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or by shooting us an email over at [email protected]. This episode is sponsored by Stealth Hover 2000. Visit our website at https://www.filmsnuff.com.