Sightlines · reception

How Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) was received

2014 · Alejandro G. Iñárritu · Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) on Sightlines

The arc

It swept the 2015 Oscars — Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography — as an instant prestige darling; a decade on it's the winner people relitigate, forever shadowed by the film it beat.

What’s debated

The eternal fight: did Birdman really deserve Best Picture over Boyhood, or was the Academy just flattered by a movie about the anxieties of actors?

Its footprint

Michael Keaton marching through Times Square in his underwear is the image everyone remembers, the 'one-take' illusion launched a thousand video essays, and 'popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige' still gets quoted in reviews.

Where it stands

A canon-climber in reverse — a Best Picture winner whose Letterboxd stock keeps slipping while the Keaton-as-Batman meta-casting keeps it endlessly discussable.

Did you know? Antonio Sánchez's celebrated all-drums score was ruled ineligible for the Best Original Score Oscar because the Academy judged the film used too much pre-existing classical music alongside it.

A Deleuzian reading of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) →