It's not perfect (it can be exhausting at times, actually), but it says a lot about people, narcissism and the co-dependent relationship between actor and celebrity.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Sep 1, 2017

A thunderbolt reminder of the kind of quick-thinking, quick-talking, quick-witted characters that Keaton used to specialize in, and Iñárritu finds the right style to showcase his gifts.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2016

Even when Keaton is transforming his character's stock issues into ones that feel unique and genuine, he's undercut by his director's flashiness, right up to an on-the-nose finale.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2016

Birdman is a one-trick pony of a movie, but what a trick. The technical achievement alone is immense.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 16, 2015

You are unlikely to see a better American film this year.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 14, 2015

Birdman has wings, for certain, even if you find the feathers sticking in your throat now and then.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 4, 2015

Birdman, more than most, seems a film that deserves a second viewing, not only to admire the work of Keaton and his co-stars, but to delve into its many layers.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2015

It's a quasi-religious fable about a man haunted by the past and facing a profound moral and existential crisis in the present, and it's a dazzling display of virtuoso cinematic technique and showboat performances.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2015

It is a work of magical realism, or perhaps moderate insanity. And it will take your breath away.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 2, 2015

This thing flies, and even if its audience is reduced to looking up and pointing skyward, that's a pleasure in itself.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jan 2, 2015

You can't help liking the mind or minds that thought the film up; you wouldn't want to close it; and you can bet money on seeing Michael Keaton, here in blisteringly inventive form, in the Best Actor suspects' line-up on Oscar night.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2015

The characters in Birdman don't always find redemption, but Iñárritu's faith in people has never felt more real.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2015

This is a strange and beautiful and unique film, one of the best movies of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 2, 2015

[Birdman] is audacious technically, and so meta it may well blow your mind, but it is also weird, maddening, wearing and exhausting.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2015

The reason this scalding industry satire works as well as it does is because it has a grounding in some fairly uncomfortable truths about the movie business even as the plot indulges in flights -- literally -- of fancy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 2, 2015

It's a pleasing irony that this study of one actor's search for honesty has been concocted using a repertoire of visual sleights of hand. A philosophical rumination it may be but that doesn't prevent it from also being an adrenalised delight.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2015

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is the sort of movie that ends up on a person's favourite-movies-of-all-time list. It's really that fresh.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 2, 2015

For all this admirably odd film's virtues, its pretensions do let it down at times.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 2, 2015

Birdman is everything you want movies to be: vital, challenging, intellectually alive, visually stunning, emotionally affecting.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 1, 2015

Billy Wilder once said: "If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you." I'm guessing Mexican writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu would agree.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 26, 2014