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Your hosts welcome Doug Gobeski to the studio to dig deep on Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). It won the Oscar for Best Picture, and was co-written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. So why doesn’t it get traction with half the user reviews on the internet? And what does the movie have to say about art vs entertainment? And, dare I ask, what do we talk about when we talk about love??
Clarifications:
We get through the entire episode without mentioning the name of the director/co-writer of the film, Alejandro González Iñárritu. That’s probably because we spent time beforehand practicing and discussing how to pronounce his name, and then just forgot! We regret the omission.
Adam points out that Best Picture doesn’t mean much to him. I’m not sure I fully buy that, but I think we can all agree that Crash (2004) is a horrible movie and if you like it you are a horrible person.
The “one shot” movie Doug is referring to is called Russian Ark (2002).
So our discussion about the intent of the film is pretty clearly addressed in this Deadline interview. But it’s nice that we seemed to have figured out some of it on our own! It’s a good read, do it!
And please also read Beginners, which was the title of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love before Raymond Carver’s editor changed it. And then imagine how it could possibly be adapted for the stage…
Movies We Reference: