Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Four out of Four Stars

If there is at least one film that I implore you to see and embrace, it is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's latest barnburner of a movie, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). The opening shot is like the opening line out of Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" as "a screaming comes across the sky" from above leading to Michael Keaton meditating in midair as he prepares for his first performance on Broadway with his adaptation of Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," in which he stars in and directs. The next two hours is a gripping, funny, and naked look into the world of acting, celebrity, and redemption as Riggan Thomson (Keaton), a former big budget action star from the late-Eighties, tries to get through a hectic three days of preview showings and opening night of his first and maybe last chance of acting. Within the pressure of trying to reclaim his place in the spotlight, Riggan is blindsided by his masochistic, method-acting obsessed co-star (played by Edward Norton) trying to steal his mojo while his daughter/publicist (Emma Stone) and co-star/girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) try to tame Riggan's ego as he goes through a path of self-reflection and destruction due in part to the voices in his head telling him that "he should have done that reality show" and that "nobody wants to see that talky bullshit" he has sacrificed to put on stage.  Birdman is a profound meditation on the age-old fight between art versus commerce while focusing on the desire for affection.

Michael Keaton gives a phenomenally funny and poignant performance as Riggan; many critics have questioned whether life imitates art in regards to Keaton's past success as Batman or Beetlejuice before petering out of top-billing status. Regardless of how close Keaton is compared to Riggan, his intensity, humor, and warmth fit perfectly in what is one of his finest performances in quite a while; his verbal sparring session with a New York Times critic shows he hasn't shown signs of slowing down, just shifting into second gear. Emma Stone gives a raw and powerful performance as he chews out his father hours before going out onstage or contemplating life on the theatre rooftop opposite Edward Norton. With a succession of previous successes on screen, Stone gives her best performance in Birdman.

It would be a travesty to label the rest of the cast as "supporting actors" as each of them give their pound of flesh on screen. Edward Norton is incredible as he satirizes the method-acting approach whether it is appearing drunk onstage to feel like Raymond Carver when he poured sweat and liquor over the typewriter or getting aroused when the stage curtains open up for him. Seeing him and Keaton clash heads and egos is like watching Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton duel on guitars. Zach Galifianakis delivers a perfect balance of humor and neurosis as Riggan's shrewd lawyer and only friend. Amy Ryan, as Riggan's ex-wife, gives a solid and stoic performance as she sees Riggan wrestle with his emotions in his dressing room. Naomi Watts, who plays a naive actress getting her first break on Broadway, savors every minute of her brief time on screen by giving a sympathetic and funny performance.

Alejandro Inarritu continues to raise the bar in his canon of films that focus on the human condition with a supernatural twist as he did with Biutiful and 21 Grams. Birdman is the ultimate film nerd's film as Inarritu manages to create a mesmerizing homage to the auteurs of the past; take the excess and surreal nature of Fellini's 8 1/2, the improvisation and layered characters from Altman's films mixed with the philosophical and supernatural style of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, put it in a blender and drink it all up. If there was an Olympic competition for cinematography, Emmanuel Lubezki would reign supreme as his work on the stedicam is fluid and balletic just like his previous work with Alfonso Cuaron. With an incredible cast and a visionary filmmaker at the helm, Birdman stands out as a raw, original, and powerful work of art.

Whiplash

4 out of 4 Stars

The slow pace of a drum beat fills the screen. Then, it gradually gets louder and faster until you are grabbing the arms of your chair in anticipation as if you were riding to the top of a roller coaster. All of the sudden,  the title card comes up and the next hour and forty minutes becomes a hair-standing, wide-eyed look at two people pushing beyond the boundaries of talent and mentorship. The film is Whiplash, the story of an overly-ambitious drum major (Miles Teller) at the Shaffer Conservatory of Music in New York who is chosen to play for the Conservatory band under the leadership of a tyrannical conductor (J.K. Simmons) and will go beyond any ethical code of conduct to turn his student into the next jazz virtuoso.

The performances in this movie are flat-out amazing! Miles Teller was fifteen when he started playing the drums and practiced 4 hours a day to prepare for the movie, which was shot in a period of 19 days. Teller's passion and drive as a drummer and actor are shown in full view in his performance as Andrew, a musician who will sacrifice his blood, sweat, and tears until it pours out over the drums.  J.K. Simmons, an actor who has been type-casted for his comedic, yet sympathetic, warmth, gives the performance of his career as Fletcher, an instructor so sadistic that he would make R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket look like an agony aunt. Both Simmons and Teller clash on the screen like Ali and Foreman in the ring or Ginger Baker and Elvin Jones on the drums.    

Witten and directed by Damien Chazelle, he drew from his own experiences as a high school student in a jazz ensemble group, in which his band instructor was a force not to be reckoned with. His static camera catches the energy and emotional swings with such unpredictability you would think it was a documentary. At first glance, you might think of this movie as "Rocky with drums" but, if anything, it draws comparisons to Raging Bull; from soaking a clenched, bloody fist into a bucket of ice after an intense drumming session to the dilemma of how one functions off the drum kit when the band stops playing. If you're looking for a film that pulls sympathetic punches in the style of Fame, Mr. Holland's Opus, or an agonizing episode of Glee, take a hike! Whiplash is a film that cuts deep with an intense and visceral edge that will make your jaw drop with amazement.        

St. Vincent

No Stars

Vincent is a drunk and grumpy war veteran who befriends a scrawny, yet mature, ten year old. Am I watching Gran Torino? Also, the ten year old boy is raised by a single mother trying to make ends meet and trying to gain custody over her son. Doesn’t this sound like Kramer Vs. Kramer? In addition to the curmudgeonly war veteran babysitting the precocious young boy, he is trying to scrape by at either the race track or by selling pharmaceuticals to pay his stripper/hooker girlfriend who just so happens to be pregnant. Now I feel like I’m watching an episode of Shameless. 

The film, or bastardization of the aforementioned films and television shows, is St. Vincent, the flat directorial debut of Theodore Melfi. Marketed as a comedy based on the trailer and publicity, the film only gets a few giggles from the same gags repeated in the trailer. Despite a star-studded cast, the performances are stuck in the quicksand of typical Hollywood claptrap. At first glance, you would think the film would be a quirky, slice-of-life look at the generational gap between Bill Murray and his young protege, played by Jaeden Lieberher, in a manner similar to the writing of Wes Anderson, but the result is a film with cliche piled on after heart-string pulling cliche that it might as well be titled, “Not Another Oscar Movie.” The running time of the film is an hour and forty-two minutes, yet it drags on to the point where I thought my watch stopped. 

   

Gone Girl

4 out of 4 Stars

One of the most talked about and unhinged date films of the year, Gone Girl is David Fincher's gripping adaptation of Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel about the disappearance and suspected murder of a writer's wife in small town Missouri. On the morning of his five year wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) comes home from the local watering hole, which he owns, and finds that his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Amy's disappearance leads to an investigation led by local law enforcement and fueled by media speculation over whether or not Nick kidnapped or murdered his wife. Standing by Nick's side over the televised grilling from cable news pundits is his twin sister, Margo (Carrie Coon) as she houses Nick during the investigation. Revealing anything else would spoil this white-knuckled thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat and rethinking of whether or not to clutch your significant others' hand.

David Fincher, one of the masters of neo-noir, delivers a stunning film that ranks up to his previous thrillers like Se7en, The Game, and Zodiac. Fincher manages to find the delicate balance of directing a thriller with the suspense of Hitchcock's North By Northwest and Reed's The Third Man with a style that is vivid and chilling thanks his collaboration with long-time cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and accompanied with an industrialist score by alternative virtuosos Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor. Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay to her own novel making the visual experience as memorable and suspenseful as reading the book by focusing on the mass media-obsession and insanity over American crime without resorting to the same soapbox messages preached in Natural Born Killers or Kalifornia.     

Ben Affleck gives a great performance as Nick Dunne, but it is Rosamund Pike's performance as Amy that will bowl you over. Known for her previous work in action flicks like Jack Reacher and Die Another Day, Pike delivers an unforgettable performance in Gone Girl that is as full of shock and awe as Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction or Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion. Tyler Perry delivers a surprisingly solid performance as a high profile lawyer involved in Amy's disappearance while Neil Patrick Harris shows his Barney Stintson-esque flair as a flamboyant face from Amy's past.

Gone Girl is one movie that hits at the core over the conventional issues regarding marriage, trust, and fidelity without becoming a Lifetime movie of the week or stalling the plot with cliches resulting in one of David Fincher's finest works so far.