Tuesday’s Top Trailer: Birdman

Welcome back to a weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Tuesday's Top Trailer. One of my favorite parts about going to see movies is the series of trailers that airs beforehand and, more often than not, the trailer is far better than the actual film. Each week, I'll be sharing a trailer I've recently seen. Please chime in with comments on what you think of the trailer and how you think the movie is going to be.

Birdman – Opening October 17, 2014

You don’t see Michael Keaton in a lot of movies these days. The onetime Batman hasn’t had the starring role in a film in a while, and certainly not one of this caliber. Yet it’s just this kind of part that is designed to bring once-great actors who never had the chance to deliver a knockout performance back to critical prominence (see Mickey Rourke and Bill Murray, among others). This is the fifth feature film from writer-director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, all of whose previous films have earned Oscar nominations. I thought “Bitiful” was strong and devastating, and I consider “21 Grams” to be an amazing film and the best film of 2003. Inarritu, who netted his first Oscar Best Director bid in 2006 for “Babel,” which I didn’t love, is taking on a true biopic of a fake person, one which is reminiscent of “Raging Bull” and any story about a washed-up celebrity well past his prime, though with considerably more cinematic creativity. The cast around Keaton is impressive, to say the least: Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Ryan, and Naomi Watts. Listed solely as a comedy on IMDB, this film appears to have a certain spunk and style to it that could prove enormously effective. This is poised to be one of the big Oscar movies of the year, an independent hit from the reliable Fox Searchlight that looks like another smart and savvy choice from the realm of independent cinema and a proven quality auteur.