Birdman - DVD review

Directed by Alejandro G Inarritu, 2014

Fox

It swoops down at you from above, then from below, sweeping round corners and performing pirouettes.

The camera is more than happy to draw attention to itself in the exhilarating Best Picture Oscar winner Birdman and so is everyone else.

This is a film made for and about showing off (sorry, acting).

Michael Keaton (Batman) is outstanding as the former star of superhero franchise Birdman who now, if not quite washed up, is bobbing dangerously near the shore.

We find him close to cracking up: his Carver adaptation for the theatre is in disarray; add a pregnant lover, combative daughter and a co-star with an oversized ego (Edward Norton).

The stars get to flex their acting muscles, switching between stage and screen performance styles and in and out of shot.

If you strip away the tech and thesp bravura, there's arguably not much here beyond a comic dissection of actorly ego but the screwball-speed dialogue is as snappy as the percussive soundtrack.

And you have to admire the plumage.

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