Birdman

[feather]

Re: Birdman

I thought the film was finished when the real gun went off. So, for me, the other scene was more of a "here ya go, consider this possibility.....none of this was real --powers weren't real, voice he heard wasn't real, the critic in the bar (was just his paranoia), all of it was only in his ill mind. And he saw his daughter seeing his death as taking flight. He was sick."

That interpretation is the same as my friend's.

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Re: Birdman

what I didn't find plausible was that he aimed at his temple and only accidentally shot off his nose; is that plausible?

and if an actor used a real weapon on their head, in public, in front of an audience, no one would put him in a hospital room with a window that could open, no way is that plausible!! he wouldn't have had all those flower vases in his room, visitors, etc. he'd be on suicide watch.

As soon as all of that started happening in the film, I thought the director was taking us into his daughter's or ex-wife's fantasy or a dream sequence. None of that seems realistic to me.

I thought the film was finished when the real gun went off. So, for me, the other scene was more of a "here ya go, consider this possibility.....none of this was real --powers weren't real, voice he heard wasn't real, the critic in the bar (was just his paranoia), all of it was only in his ill mind. And he saw his daughter seeing his death as taking flight. He was sick."

A last minute flinch/change of mind at the last moment could cause the hand to jerk enough from his temple into an angle that would blow his nose off.

I took this movie sort of in the same way I took Bamboozled by Spike Lee - there's a lot of internal debate between an artist who wants to make something meaningful, but is usually forced or tempted to go the sell out route in order to make that vision possible - usually resulting in the artist being unable to escape the sell out image that he/she has crafted for themselves.

This is something that occurs with just about every A list actor and even to a degree, directors as well. George Lucas will always be asked about Star Wars regardless of whatever he puts out. Same for Harrison Ford, who's always being asked about the next Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Blade Runner installment. Sigourney Weaver is forever going to be asked about Alien and the list goes on. The mass scale and hype that goes behind these huge, career making blockbusters will almost always overshadow anything new and original that isn't some huge summer blockbuster. This movie examines how celebrity can be an obstacle towards a true artist minded project and interfere or even pervert that project.

I really liked it as a movie - you're seeing some incredible directorial skills being flexed with the illusion of the single continuous shot and the more fantastic elements to the film, and the selection of Michael Keaton was a masterstroke of casting.

If you liked this, I would strongly recommend trying to track down JCVD - a very similarly minded movie that examines with a certain amount of meta-ness the life and career of Jean Claude Van Damme - it's still one of the funniest and best films he's ever done.