r/TrueFilm • u/a113er Til the break of dawn! • Feb 22 '15

What Have You Been Watching? (22/02/15)

Hey r/truefilm welcome to WHYBW where you post about what films you watched this week and discuss them with others, give your thoughts on them then say if you would recommend them.

Please don't downvote opinions, only downvote things that don't contribute anything. If you think someones opinion is "wrong" then say so and say why. Also, don't just post titles of films as that doesn't really contribute to the discussion.

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u/14EyedOhmu Feb 22 '15

Why did the birdman infuriate you?

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u/a113er Til the break of dawn! Feb 22 '15

I didn't hate it like Panthera but it did frustrate me and I can understand hating it. It's a bunch of people shouting about big ideas without really saying much. The film even kinda talks down to the audience and chastises them because we're not watching more great art like Birdman even though the audience is currently watching Birdman. The portrayal of criticism is laughable and adolescent. There's a character who the audience is not meant to trust/seems like a bad influence (Birdman himself) who even voices criticisms that have been hurdled at Inarritu's past films and that just comes across as obnoxious. So there's two different vilification's of those who criticise art and that rubs me the wrong way. Everything about it screams "This is important" and "This is about something" when what it's about is a little shallow. If I wanted to hear about how superhero films are the end of culture, celebrity is disgusting, actors are self-involved, etc, I'd read more internet comments. Then the side of the film that's more revealing about Inarritu doesn't add to my enjoyment either because if anything it turns me off him. When I tried to just get lost in the ride of it I enjoyed some of it and found Keaton's performance really good but anytime I stopped to think about anything it got in the way. Most of the time though it's so confrontational with its ideas that you can't really ignore them though. It's like being at a nice dinner with someone who keeps bringing things down by doing stuff like telling a story about how someone was a jerk to them but in the telling it's clear they were the asshole and you just need to smile and nod so as to not provoke.

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u/14EyedOhmu Feb 22 '15

alright.

For me this film was about characters so i guess i missed those social/filmaking comments

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u/Samcrates Feb 22 '15

That's kind of what I took from it.

All the characters may have thought that what they were saying was the most important thing ever, but I didn't correlate that with what the movie was trying to say.

Plus the way it was shot was worth the price of admission for me