By SANJIT DEEPALAM
Staff Writer

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is a 2014 movie directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, who is also known for directing Babel and The Revenant. The film follows a washed-up actor named Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) as he tries to salvage his dwindling career by putting on a Broadway play based on a book by Raymond Carver. At the same time, Thomson has to navigate his rocky relationship with his daughter Sam Thomson (Emma Stone) and an egotistical theater actor named Mike Shiner (Edward Norton). Thomson was famous in the nineties for playing a superhero named Birdman, but has since lost his popularity and wants to regain his reputation by making a play that is not only a box office success, but also a quality work of art.
One of the most incredible features about Birdman, aside from its acting and story, was the camerawork. The movie is 1 hour and 59 minutes long, but looks like one scene; the camera and the audience follow the actors as they walk around their surroundings. The entire movie looks like one fluid shot, however, there are breaks in time that the audience has to pick up on.
Birdman is an incredibly engaging movie. Not only is the story great, but the camerawork and the acting is also noticeably good. The movie is also laced with various anecdotes and lessons different from the main plot. The stories of the characters are also very relatable to the average person. Not only are they all complex, but the way their stories intertwine is also very fascinating to watch.
Birdman has rightfully garnered a lot of praise. The great acting, engaging plot and fluid camerawork always keep the viewers entertained and enthralled. The movie, which was shown in relatively few theaters, grossed about $2.5 million in its opening wide weekend and has since grossed a worldwide $62 million. The movie has a 92% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and has been nominated for nine academy awards, and won Best Picture.