Birdman (film)

Birdman
File:Birdman poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Written by	Alejandro G. Iñárritu Nicolás Giacobone Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. Armando Bo
Produced by	Alejandro G. Iñárritu John Lesher Arnon Milchan James W. Skotchdopole
Starring	Michael Keaton Zach Galifianakis Edward Norton Andrea Riseborough Amy Ryan Emma Stone Naomi Watts
Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by	Douglas Crise Stephen Mirrione
Music by	Antonio Sánchez
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates	August 27, 2014 (2014-08-27) (Venice) October 17, 2014 (2014-10-17) (United States)
Running time	119 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$16.5 million
Box office	$72.1 million

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a 2014 American black comedy drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. It stars Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts. Keaton plays a faded Hollywood actor famous for his superhero role struggling to mount a Broadway adaptation of a Raymond Carver story.

Birdman was the opening film of the 71st Venice International Film Festival, where it premiered on August 27, 2014, in competition for the Golden Lion. It received a limited theatrical release in the United States on October 17, 2014, and a wide release on November 14, distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film grossed more than $72 million worldwide.

Birdman received critical acclaim, and was named one of the best films of 2014 by organizations including the AFI and the National Board of Review. It was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards at the 72nd ceremony, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Director, Best Score and won for Best Screenplay. Keaton won Best Actor, while Norton and Stone were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively at both the Golden Globe Awards and the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards, where the cast won for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture. At the 87th Academy Awards, Birdman received nine nominations, joint most for the ceremony (with The Grand Budapest Hotel), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and acting nominations for Keaton, Norton and Stone.

Plot

Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) is a washed-up Hollywood actor famous for playing the superhero Birdman in blockbuster movies decades earlier. Riggan is tormented by the voice of Birdman, who criticizes him, and he sees himself performing feats of levitation and telekinesis. Riggan hopes to reinvent his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The play is produced by Riggan's best friend and lawyer Jake (Zach Galifianakis), and also stars Riggan's girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough) and first-time Broadway actress Lesley (Naomi Watts). Riggan's daughter Sam (Emma Stone), a recovering addict, serves as his assistant.

During rehearsals, a light fixture falls onto Ralph, an actor Riggan and Jake agree is terrible; Riggan tells Jake he caused the light to fall so he could replace Ralph. Through a connection with Lesley, Riggan replaces Ralph with the brilliant but volatile method actor Mike (Edward Norton), refinancing his house to fund his contract. The first previews go disastrously: Mike breaks character over the replacement of his gin with water, and attempts to rape Lesley during a sex scene. Riggan reads early press coverage and is incensed that Mike has stolen the attention, but Jake encourages him to continue. When Riggan catches Sam using marijuana, she tells him he does not matter and his play is a vanity project.

Backstage during the final preview, Riggan sees Sam and Mike flirting. He accidentally locks himself out of the theater and has to walk in his underwear through Times Square to get back inside; his popularity explodes online. Afterwards, he runs into influential critic Tabitha Dickinson, who tells him she hates Hollywood celebrities who "pretend" to be actors, and promises to "kill" his play with a negative review. Riggan gets drunk and passes out in the street. The next day, he hallucinates a conversation with Birdman, who tries to convince him to make another Birdman film, and sees himself flying through New York City back to the theater.

On opening night, Riggan uses a real gun for the final scene in which his character kills himself, and shoots his nose off onstage. He earns a standing ovation from all but Tabitha, who leaves during the applause. In the hospital, Jake tells Riggan that Tabitha gave the play a rave review. After Sam visits Riggan, he dismisses Birdman and climbs onto the window ledge; when Sam returns, Riggan is gone. She looks down at the street, then up at the sky, and smiles.

• Spoiler Alert: The ending is deceptively subtle. Throughout the movie, viewers are acclimated to Riggan's polarities of existence, varying from rational and optimistic, to maniacal or even impossible. It is left up to the viewer to try to decide what is real and what is not. In the final scene of his play, Riggan doesn't use the prop gun, but a real one. He fires at his head, and his body hits the stage. The movie critic springs out of her seat and immediately leaves. The audience applauds.

Cut to Riggan in the hospital the next morning, after having supposedly blown his nose off in the ending of play (instead of using a prop gun to pretend to shoot himself in the head, as scripted). His ex-wife is there at the hospital with him, supporting him. His attorney/friend visits and shows Riggan the play not only got wonderful reviews, but front page. The press is choking the hospital hallway, eager for a glimpse or word from him. His daughter visits him, and happily presents him the flowers he asked for earlier in the movie, but she didn't really try to find. He jokes that "but now he can't smell them", perhaps a bittersweet nod to what the viewer has yet to surmise. When his daughter goes to find a vase for them and Riggan is left alone, he gets up from his bed and removes the bandages from his face revealing only a bruised nose, not one that has had reconstructive surgery the night before after having been traumatically blown off.

THIS is the viewer's clue that "something isn't real". No one does reconstructive surgery on a blown off nose the moment it happens, and even if they did, there were no stitches, no facial swelling, only a enlarged and bruised nose, as if he had been punched. Riggan inspects his nose for a moment in the mirror, and then goes to his window and opens it, and jumps out. His daughter returns with the vase and can't find him. Panicked, she looks out the open window to the street below, but apparently doesn't see him. Then she looks up at the sky, and smiles.

What it takes the viewer a while to figure out (if you don't read it here first) is that Riggan doesn't blow his nose off at the end of the play. He DIES. Beginning with the applause from the audience and moving through his ex-wife, his attorney-friend, his review, the eager press, and his daughter, everyone has turned sunny and happy. This is in contrast to the rest of the movie, where he was constantly trying to keep everything and everyone going along smoothly.

Even in his death-reality, Riggan continues to modify and improvise his "life" just like a performance. He effortlessly re-scripts his nose from being blown off to just being bruised without the slightest explanation to the viewer. In the end, Riggan achieves what he wants, which is given to us in the very beginning - a quote from the book his play is based from titled "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love".

"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."

And that is how Riggan scripted his life inside of his own thoughts. Like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes of his dismal life, he finally gains the super-human attributes he has longed for and pretended that he had during his life when in the final scenes, he jumps out of the window like his larger-than-life character Birdman, and flies, as implied by his daughter's upward gaze and smile. In his own, imperfect way, Riggan scripted his after-death reality on the fly so that he got what we were told in the beginning he wanted..."To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth." And he finally was.

Cast

• Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson / Birdman
• Edward Norton as Mike Shiner, an acclaimed Broadway actor
• Emma Stone as Sam Thomson, Riggan's daughter and assistant
• Naomi Watts as Lesley, an actress and Mike's former girlfriend
• Zach Galifianakis as Jake, Riggan's lawyer and friend
• Andrea Riseborough as Laura, an actress and Riggan's girlfriend
• Amy Ryan as Sylvia Thomson, Riggan's ex-wife, Sam's mother
• Lindsay Duncan as Tabitha Dickinson, a top theatre critic
• Merritt Wever as Annie, the stage manager
• Jeremy Shamos as Ralph
• Frank Ridley as Mr. Roth
• Katherine O'Sullivan as Costume Assistant
• Damian Young as Gabriel

Production

Conception and writing

The idea of a comedy set in the theatre appearing to be filmed in one shot was conceived by Iñárritu in a single thought. This said, there were influences behind its components. The comedic aspect came from Iñárritu wanting a change; all his previous films were dramas, and after directing the depressing Biutiful, did not want to approach a subject tragically again. The choice to make the film appear as a single shot, on the other hand, resulted from his realization that "we live our lives with no editing". By presenting the film like this he could "submerge the protagonist in an 'inescapable reality' and take the audience with him." Sharing his idea for a film, Iñárritu phoned writers Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolás Giacobone, who had all worked with him on his previous film.

The screenwriters were concerned about the one-shot nature of the film, however, and their first reaction was to tell him the movie couldn't work. They weren't the only people he faced resistance from though; "huge" and "important" people told him to not even try the project, and he himself described it as "almost suicidal", not knowing whether the technique would be successful, and worrying that it would become a distraction. Dinelaris later said that had they truly paused and considered the idea, they may have convinced Iñárritu out of it. The project began nonetheless. With Iñárritu in Los Angeles, Giacobone and Bo in Buenos Aires, and Dinelaris in New York, work on the script was done mainly through Skype calls and emails. This wasn't necessarily bad however: Dinelaris said he believed the best ideas in Birdman came from Skype sessions at two in the morning where he and Giacobone were "cracking each other up." Incorporating the one-shot feature into the script also made the writing process more involved than usual. Bo said "We wrote everything thinking of this one shot, and a lot of decisions that would mostly be taken in the editing room were taken before shooting." A consequence of the one-shot approach was the inability to take out scenes or change their order, so they needed to be "very, very sure about what was on the page." These factors meant it took about a year and a half before the final draft was written.

"You have to be an idiot to do it all in one shot. You have to be an idiot to attempt it. It takes a great, great deal of ignorance to not pay attention to the difficulties and to think you’re going to do this. Birdman looks like a good idea now, but a year and a half ago we did not know how we would land."

— Alexander Dinelaris

While some aspects of the film – the first frame with Riggan, for instance – went unchanged from Birdman's conception to release, others went through several iterations. One of these was the sequence in which Riggan's thoughts are completely taken over by Birdman. The writers knew it would occur at Riggan's lowest point, so at one stage planned for it to happen after Riggan hears the initial negative press coverage and starts throwing and breaking everything around his dressing room. Another version of the moment saw Riggan trying to drown himself in Central Park and flying out to save himself. The film's ending was also changed, but astonishingly done halfway through filming. Realizing the film's conclusion was terrible, Iñárritu rewrote the ending with Dinelaris and Giacobone after it came to him in a dream. When questioned about the original ending however, he explained he would never describe it because it was "so embarrassing". Dinelaris later leaked the ending though, noting it was set in the theatre instead of the hospital, and involved Johnny Depp sitting in Riggan's dressing room. They would not have been able to do shoot this version anyway, since Depp wasn't available.

The personal experiences of the writers informed aspects of the script. Dinelaris' exposure to Broadway shaped the depictions of rehearsals and events backstage, though he admitted to exaggerating these. He also felt his background writing long scenes of dialog helped since scenes in the film "were really more like play scenes." Iñárritu influenced many of the film's themes, saying "What this film talks about, I have been through. I have seen and experienced all of it; it's what I have been living through the last years of my life." Dinelaris described this aspect as "a laughing look at oneself", although noted it had to be done in a comedic way otherwise "it would have been the most unbelievably self-absorbed look at the subject." Themes from Carver's short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love also influenced the script. During writing Iñárritu wanted to find the connection between the themes in Riggan's story and those of Carver's. For this reason it was important to Iñárritu that Carver's story be the subject of the play, so found using his work terrifying in case the rights to it were rejected, but no issues arose. Tess Gallagher, the widow of Carver, loved the script and gave the all-clear, saying that Carver would be laughing about the film.

Casting

Michael Keaton was Iñárritu's first choice to play Riggan Thomson.

Iñárritu had already cast several of the leading roles before the film was financed. Among these was the lead. Initially during writing, Iñárritu didn't have Keaton in mind, but things had changed by the end: "When I finished the script, I knew that Michael was not the choice or option, he was the guy". Iñárritu cast him for his depth in a variety of acting styles; he could handle up-close work, the demands of the stage, comedy and empathy, "with a profound depth to both." Keaton knew about Birdman before Iñárritu contacted him though. He was in the middle of production at another project when he received a call, advising him that Iñárritu was making another film. Being a fan of his work, he flew home to find out more. Iñárritu sent him the script, and discussed it over dinner. The first thing Keaton asked the director was whether he was making fun of him, but after Iñárritu explained the role, its technicalities and the film's production, Keaton agreed to play Riggan. Casting Lesley was easier. Naomi Watts had already worked with Iñárritu before on 21 Grams, and accepted his invitation. She was able to work on the movie since she was living in New York at the time. Iñárritu called his decision behind casting Galifianakis as Jake "a bet". Galifianakis met the director's criteria of being lovable and funny, but Iñárritu also considered him sensitive, which scored him the role. Emma Stone already knew she wanted to work with Iñárritu before she was offered the role of Sam. The script that Iñárritu gave her and the rest of the cast came with the photo Man on Wire, which featured Philippe Petit crossing the Twin Towers on a tightrope. Iñárritu told the cast "We are doing that".

The aforementioned actors were all on board before Iñárritu had secured funding. He first sent the script to Fox Searchlight Pictures who loved it, but turned the offer down because the asking budget was too high. At one stage Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures wanted to be involved in the project, but decided against it because, unlike her other films, had not been involved since the beginning. Iñárritu later approached Brad Weston, president of New Regency. He accepted the offer, but upon hearing about the deal production executive Claudia Lewis of Searchlight now wanted to be involved. The two companies partnered, as they had just previously done in 12 Years a Slave, and financed the film for $16.5 million.

The pair had a close relationship with Iñárritu, editing the script with him and switching some of the actors. When they joined production Josh Brolin was playing the role of Mike Shiner, but decided to switch him for Norton because of scheduling conflicts. Iñárritu found casting Mike Shiner difficult, because he wanted from his actors "a quality of reality in each of them that really projects to the film." He said Norton's experience as a theatre actor combined with his self-confidence meant that "in a way there was some kind of mental reality to Edward", but Norton believes he was the one who convinced Iñárritu to take him on. Already a fan of the director's work, and impressed with his ability to push outside the boundaries, Norton had heard about Iñárritu's project from a friend. He read through the screenplay at 3am, and said "I laughed so hard I woke people up." He wanted to meet him the next day, and once he got to the director, told him he couldn't cast someone who was the "embodiment" of what the script was taking aim at. Instead, someone "who has at least a little bit of authentic depth of experience, in this world." Iñárritu agreed. Norton was not only member of the cast who had tasted the theatre world though. Ryan, one of the last actors to be cast, was invited because Iñárritu had seen her in the play Detroit. Lindsay Duncan had vast experience in the theartre world too, and decided to accept her offer as the critic because of the quality of the script, saying 'It's delicious because of the writing'. But like Shiner's character, Iñárritu found casting Laura difficult. Riseborough met him on a street corner for a cup of tea, and recalling the event, said "I told him that I would crawl across hot coals to work with him". Iñárritu described Laura as "a very wacky, quirky role," but said "when [Andrea Riseborough] did it I knew that it was her, because she did it right in the tone, and she understood who she was – she was not judging."

Rehearsal and filming

Benjamin Kanes (Birdman) and Michael Keaton (Riggan) rehearsing the action-sequence of the film.

Once the writing was finished, Iñárritu contacted friend and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to discuss his idea for the film. After reading the script, Lubezki was worried that Iñárritu would offer him the job since "[Birdman] had all of the elements of a movie that I did not want to do at all" – comedy, studio work and long takes – but changed his mind after further discussion with the director. The pair had worked together on commercials and a short film in the anthology To Each His Own Cinema, but not on any feature films. Lubezki wanted to be sure that this was a decision Rodrigo Prieto, cinematographer of all four of Iñárritu's feature films, was comfortable with, but after receiving his blessing, the two headed into pre-production.

Lubezki was concerned that no film had been shot in the way Iñárritu envisioned, meaning there would be no reference material to look up. The two decided the only way to learn how to shoot it would be to shoot it themselves, so they hired a warehouse in Sony Studios, Los Angeles, and built a proxy stage. The setup was minimal, with canvas and C-stands for walls, tape and a few pieces of furniture to mark out areas. Using a camera and some stand-ins, the duo worked through the movie to see if it was possible. Having realized no theater had all the backstage areas they required, they hired Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York. Still, Iñárritu wanted to shoot at a Broadway theater, but would have to wait until several weeks into rehearsals before securing St. James Theatre. They then went about having the stand-ins read and walk through the script to see how large the set needed to be. Afterwards, they designed and made "blueprints" of the shots and the blocking of the scenes. The planning was precise. Iñárritu said "There was no room to improvise at all. Every movement, every line, every door opening, absolutely everything was rehearsed." The actors started rehearsing once this preliminary work was completed: according to Lubezki, they did the scenes with the actors "once we kind of knew what the rhythm of the scenes were." He described the atypical approach "like an upside down movie where you do post-production before the production."

"I know Alejandro is very adamant about kind of keeping the rabbit in the hat and not being super specific about how it was shot, but I will say it took a lot of rehearsal and it was very specific... There was no luxury of cutting away or editing around anything. You knew that every scene was staying in the movie, and like theater, this was it, this was your chance to live this scene."

— Emma Stone

During the blocking of the scenes and rehearsals, Iñárritu gathered his long-time editors Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione onto the proxy set, so they could discuss where to remove edits. Production designer Kevin Thompson was on hand too, since many of the shots Iñárritu desired required the set to be built in a certain way. For example, Riggan's makeup mirror and desk were constructed so that the camera would see his reflection. Thompson also took into consideration the needs of the crew, for instance designing the stairs a little wider for Steadicam operator Chris Haarhoff's footsize. The writers were also involved at this stage, fine-tuning the script to "make sure the film was fluid and never stopped.

St. James Theatre and Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York were used to film the stage and backstage scenes of Birdman respectively.

Once the logistics of the scenes were worked out and they had the timing down, the team headed to Kaufman Studios for more rehearsals, followed by principal photography based exclusively in New York during the spring of 2013. The studios were used to film the backstage areas of the film, including Riggan's dressing room and the theatre corridors. St. James Theatre was used for two weeks, and was the location for the stage scenes. The bar segments were shot in The Rum House on 47th Street, and 43rd Street was used for the action-sequence. Throughout the locations, including the studio, the scenes were lit with natural light, since Lubezki wanted the movie "to look as naturalistic as possible." The night-time scenes were possible to film in this way due to the brightness of New York.

Throughout shooting, Arri Alexa cameras were used, with an Alexa M for handheld sequences and an Alexa XT attached to the Steadicam. Neither used matteboxes, however. Steadicam operator Chris Haarhoff explained this decision: "We didn’t want this big black thing gliding into their eyeline. This way we could get very close and get the light past the lens and onto the actor’s face." Lubezki – who did all the handheld camerawork – had chosen the Alexa M because the camera was very small and allowed him to get into tiny spaces and close to the actors, sometimes filming two inches away from Keaton's face. The camera also allowed recording for such a long period – necessary for the long takes of the movie – that Lubezki went so far as to say the movie would have been impossible to do years before. The cameras were lensed with Leica Summilux-C or Zeiss Master Primes. Lubezki stated that these gave clean images, saying "You can have all these lights in the frame and they are not really causing bad flare or things like that." In terms of sizes, they initially trialled an 21mm, but this didn't give Iñárritu the "intimacy" he wanted. The crew instead went to a 18mm Leica, which was used for the majority of the film. Only when emphasis was needed did they switch the lens to a 14mm, but this was rare.

The meticulous timing for the scenes meant that takes were cancelled because of the slightest mishaps. Emma Stone, in an interview with Jimmy Fallon, recalled how a six-minute take of the scene where Riggan first meets Mike was ruined after she walked around a corner too quickly. Because of this, the number of takes for a given scene was high, usually twenty for the shorter scenes, the takes running smoothly around the fifteenth. Chris Haarhoff described it as "a type of dance where everyone would hopefully try to peak all at the same moment." The locations sometimes placed restrictions on the takes too; the live Times Square sequence was shot only twice since they didn't want to attract the attention of tourists.

Whenever shooting was taking place however, there was pressure on everyone involved, but the cast had a positive experience. Edward Norton said that normally in movie production half the people can "check out" due to repetitive aspects, but during the shooting of Birdman "everybody's on, the whole thing, and you're all on pins and needles because you're all relying on forty other people not to drop the ball." Because of this, Stone said the director was able to get the best out of the cast, saying "[Iñárritu's process] creates this sort of fury in you, and then you end up realizing that he just got so much out of you that you didn’t even know you had." Naomi Watts commented that the atmosphere "felt emblematic of how it feels onstage – at least my long-time memories from long ago." Andrea Riseborough, meanwhile, described the process as "wonderful", mentioning how it was possible to hear the filming of a sequence from far away before the camera arrived and then "the magic happens with you, and then everything leaves you, and everything's silent." Once they successfully completed a take though, it was obvious to everybody involved. Norton said "I’ve never, ever been on a set where every day ended with an enormous, authentic sort of cheer at having made it. You’re waiting for the scream from [Iñárritu] and everybody was genuinely excited."

Music

The film's music consists entirely of drums and classical pieces. With Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky among others, most of the classical composers featured are well known, but Iñárritu did not regard the choice of pieces an important, saying "I think all those classical pieces are, in a way, great, but honestly if I would have put another good classical piece it would be the same film." Iñárritu stated that the classical components come from the world of the play, citing the radio in Riggan's room and the show itself as two sources of the music. The drum sections comprise the majority of the score however, and were composed by Antonio Sánchez. Iñárritu explained the choice by saying they helped to structure scenes, and that "The drums, for me, was a great way to find the rhythm of the film... In comedy, rhythm is king, and not having the tools of editing to determine time and space, I knew I needed something to help me find the internal rhythm of the film." He also wanted a score that "wouldn’t cater to an audience’s expectations", which the drums, being more abstract, provided. The official soundtrack was released in October 14, 2014.

Jazz drummer Antonio Sánchez composed and recorded the score for the film.

Iñárritu contacted friend and jazz drummer Antonio Sánchez in January 2013, inviting him to compose the score for the film. His reaction to writing a soundtrack using only drums was similar to Lubezki's thoughts of shooting the movie like a single shot: "It was a scary proposition because I had no point of reference of how to achieve this. There’s no other movie I know that has a score like this." Sánchez had also not worked on a film before, nevertheless, after receiving the script, composed "rhythmic themes" for each of the characters. Iñárritu was looking for the opposite approach however, preferring spontaneity and improvisation. Sánchez then waited until production moved to New York before composing more, where he visited the set for a couple of days to get a better idea of the film. Following this, a week before principal photography, he and Iñárritu went to a studio to record some demos. During these sessions the director would first talk him through the scene, then while Sánchez was improvising guide him by raising his hand to indicate an event – such as a character opening a door – or by describing the rhythm with verbal sounds. They recorded around seventy demos, which Iñárritu used to inform the pacing of the scenes on set, and once filming was complete, spliced them into the rough cut. Sánchez summarized the process by saying "The movie fed on the drums and the drums fed on the imagery."

His next work on Birdman was in September, where he traveled to Los Angeles to re-record the soundtrack. By this stage the film was assembled, so during the two days of recording Sánchez would watch a scene to see what Iñárritu had done with the demos, then redo the track. This was a new experience for Sánchez who until this point, had guided his improvisations in response to "the sound and energy" around him. Here, he was using a scene to guide him, and said the biggest challenge of the soundtrack was "adapting what I do to a moving image, a story line, and dialogue." As in New York, Iñárritu supervised these recordings, but this time would give specific directions. For example, instructing Sánchez to stop or start when Riggan uttered certain words. Iñárritu also shaped the overall feel of the soundtrack. He wanted it to grow crazier throughout the film, so for the end tracks Sánchez would overdub up to four drum tracks on top of each other. Additionally, Iñárritu was not satisfied with the quality of the sound from the previous recordings: it was too good. Instead, he wanted an instrument that sounded like it hadn't been played in years, to tie in with state of the theatre in the film. To achieve this, Sánchez adjusted his setup; detuning the drums and stacking different kinds of cymbals on top of one another were among the techniques he used. Amusingly, this process was included in the film – the first sound in Birdman is in fact Sánchez asking Iñárritu a question in Spanish, followed by his detuning of the drums.

In between the two studio recordings, Sánchez was away touring with the Pat Metheny Group, which created a complication. Iñárritu wanted to include a drummer in the film from the very beginning, saying "I wanted [Sánchez] to become a character in his own film, and have the play become a play of a play." The drummer recommended his friend Nate Smith, but didn't decide on the music to play beforehand, resulting in Smith improvising during the shoots. This meant Sánchez had to learn and match him exactly during the recordings in Los Angeles, noting "Alejandro was very specific and he would watch the clip over and over again to make sure that you could not tell that it was not him that was actually producing the sound. Never in my life have I had to do that." The process was not aided by a different method of recording for the scene outside of St. James Theatre featuring Smith. The drums were moved out onto the street, and people carrying mics a block away would walk towards and past Sánchez as he was playing, to coordinate the sound and image of the film without the need for post-production effects.

Best Original Score Controversy

On December 12, 2014, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released their longlist for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, from which Birdman was absent. Sánchez had received a note from the award committee the previous day explaining the decision, quoting rule fifteen of the 87th Academy Award Rules and writing they felt "the fact that the film also contains over a half an hour of non-original (mostly classical) music cues that are featured very prominently in numerous pivotal moments in the film made it difficult for the committee to accept your submission". Sánchez decided to launch an appeal, and along with Iñárritu and the executive vice-president of Fox Music, sent letters to the chair of the Academy's music branch executive committee, Charles Fox, asking that the committee reconsider their decision. One of the points they raised was that the committee had incorrectly calculated the ratio of classical to original music, which after being clarified Sánchez thought he was "on really solid ground." A response from Fox on December 19 however, explained that a special meeting of the music committee was held, and although its members had "great respect" for the score and considered it "superb", thought that the classical music "was also used as scoring", "equally contributes to the effectiveness of the film", and that the musical identity of the film was created by both the drums and classical music. As a result they did not overturn their decision. Sánchez said that he and Iñárritu were not satisfied with the explanation, and that "To not be able to even participate, to not be on the list, that’s what’s so disappointing."

Release

On July 10, 2014, it was announced that Birdman had been selected as the opening film of the 71st Venice International Film Festival along with Mohsen Makhmalbaf's new film. The film got a limited release on October 17, 2014, with a theatre count of 4 in North America, and on November 14, 2014, it was released nationwide in 857 theatres.

Box office

As of February 8, 2015, Birdman has grossed $69,014,202 worldwide including $35,135,202 in North America and $33,879,000 in other territories against a production budget of $18 million.

The film made a total of $424,397 in North America in its limited opening weekend of October 17, 2014, playing in 4 theatres in New York and Los Angeles for a per theater average of $106,099 which ranks 18th all-time (eighth among live-action movies) and ranking #20. In the second weekend of October 24, 2014, Birdman expanded to 50 theaters and earned $1.38 million, that translates to a $27,593 per-theater average. The film expanded nationwide to 857 theaters in the weekend of November 14, 2014, grossing $2,471,471 with a per theatre average of $2,884 and ranking #10. In the same weekend, Birdman grossed $11.6 million.

The film opened in Mexico in November 13, 2014, grossing $628,915 in its opening weekend and it opened in January 2, 2015, in United Kingdom grossing $2,337,407 over the weekend.

Critical response

Birdman received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for Keaton, Norton, and Stone's performances. At Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 92% based on 253 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus states: "A thrilling leap forward for director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman is an ambitious technical showcase powered by a layered story and outstanding performances from Michael Keaton and Edward Norton." Metacritic gave the film a score of 88 out of 100, based on reviews from 49 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."

The camera work, which depicts most of the film as one continuous take, was met with extensive acclaim for its execution and usage. The acting was widely praised, particularly Keaton, with Peter Debruge of Variety calling the performance the "comeback of the century." Debruge described the film as "a self aware showbiz satire" and called it "a triumph on every creative level." Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave the film 5/5, with particular praise for the use of long takes by Emmanuel Lubezki, director of photography. Richard Roeper gave the film an "A", and wrote that Keaton makes a serious case for an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination.

Writing for The New Yorker, Richard Brody called the film "Godardian," comparing it to Pierrot le fou, Every Man for Himself, Alphaville and Germany Year 90 Nine Zero, four classic films by French director Jean-Luc Godard. However, he suggested the film fell short of reaching the same cinematic mastery, adding, "it’s not a good idea for a filmmaker to get in the ring with Mr. Godard." Thematically, he also compared it to Opening Night by John Cassavetes. He added that the actors played in "the sort of modern naturalism, without eccentricity of gesture, excess of expression, or heightened and formalistic precision, that is the business-casual of contemporary cinema." He concluded that the film "trade[d] on facile, casual dichotomies of theatre versus cinema and art versus commerce" and "deliver[ed] a work of utterly familiar and unoriginal drama." Also in The New Yorker, Anthony Lane rejected the film's suggestion that film critics are out to destroy films, explaining, "Someone could have told Iñárritu that critics, though often mean, are not preemptively so, and that anybody who said, as Tabitha does, “I’m going to destroy your play,” before actually seeing it, would not stay long in the job."

In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis compared the main character to Icarus. She also noted a reference to Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation in the dressing-room mirror.

Noting the thematic pull between Riggan's insanity or actual superpowers, Travis LaCouter of First Things writes that "the importance of these powers—real or imagined—is apparent: They are for Riggan the thing beyond the labels, the kernel of his genius and, because he sees drawing upon them as selling out, the source of his great angst." LaCouter concludes that "the quirky profundity of this film is in how it dares the viewer to consider the everyday magic that we tend to ignore, repress, or resent."

A number of critics have provided highly negative reviews, however. Reviewing it for Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson called the film "hoary" and "deceptively simple." Scott Tobias, writing for The Dissolve, gave the film 1.5 stars. He commends Lubezki's cinematography as succeeding at "trapping viewers in a pressure-cooker atmosphere as Riggan and his players struggle to keep it together", but suggests that Iñárritu is "incapable of modulation" and that there exists "a sourness to Birdman that Iñárritu can’t turn into wit."

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Birdman (film)

Michael Keaton received his first Golden Globe award, winning for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.

For the 87th Academy Awards, Birdman tied with The Grand Budapest Hotel in the highest number of nominations with nine, including Best Picture, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Best Actor for Keaton. Emma Stone and Edward Norton were nominated in Best Supporting Acting categories. Alejandro González Iñárritu was nominated for Best Director.

Year-end lists

Birdman appeared on over 100 critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2014, with over a few dozen publications ranking the film first in their lists.

• 1st - James Verniere - Boston Herald
• 1st - Clint O'Connor - Cleveland Plain Dealer

• 1st - Brad Brevet - Rope of Silicon

External links

• Official website
• Birdman at IMDb
• Birdman at AllMovie
• Birdman at Box Office Mojo
• Birdman at Rotten Tomatoes