Zach Galifianakis

The cast and crew, fly high in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), directed by visionary Alejandro González Iñárritu. Michael Keaton stars as Riggan Thomson, a washed-up actor who never bounced back from his peak stardom days as part of a 1990s superhero franchise, and who is desperate to gain back some spark for his faded career. Riggan attempts to jolt himself back into the limelight through the triple threat of writing, directing and starring in a Broadway adaptation of Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

His use of natural lighting, the gorgeous compositions he creates often on the fly, those long takes. This is what we talk about when we talk about Emmanuel Lubezki, the Mexican cinematographer responsible for such arresting imagery in the films of Terrence Malick (The New World, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y tu mamá también, Gravity), the Brothers Coen (Burn After Reading), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Anna”, a short in the anthology To Each His Own Cinema). He is the only cinematographer in recent memory, possibly next to Roger Deakins, that pushes the form to its limits and has name recognition for such. The naturalistic beauty of The Tree of Life was nothing compared to the – wait for it – physics-defying work in Gravity. And here he is again, using a simulated long take for Iñárritu’s Birdman. “But isn’t it just a gimmick?”, you might ask. Well, yes. And that’s probably the point.

Birdman is highly reminiscent of Noises Off, a play by Michael Frayn, about the insanity of actors as they weave in and out of doing scenes live in front of an audience on-stage. The unpredictable actor Mike Shiner (Edward Norton) throws Riggan Thomson’s life even more into chaos by his refusal to bend to his wishes. Emma Stone plays Sam, Riggan’s recovering addict daughter who has long been put on the back-burner by her dad. Stone and Norton’s challenging forces irritate but eventually bring Riggan face to face with some hard truths about himself.

Louis C.K., who seems capable of doing just about anything these days, has just received a 10 episode order for a sitcom he is working on with Zach Galifiankis called Baskets. Deadline reports that Galifianakis will star in the show as a man wishing to pursue his dream of becoming a professional clown by finding …

Earlier in the week, we brought you the first part of a Special Oscar edition of Between Two Ferns, the offbeat interview show hosted by comedian Zach Galifianakis. Today we bring you part two, which sees Galifianakis interview Jessica Chastain, Sally Field, “Daniel Day-Lewis”, and Bradley Cooper. **** (Source: Funny Or Die)

Before Zach Galifianakis gained mass popularity for being one third of the odd trio that comprised the core cast of The Hangover, he was known in the comedy community for his Between Two Ferns series, which sees Galifianakis interview actors, with the conversation not going the way these things tend to go. Now, with the Academy …

*Disclaimer: the following is based on and an expansion of an article written by Peter Howell, the Toronto Star Movie Critic. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a film of the lowest common denominator adds nothing to the institution of cinema. But as profiteers like Adam Sandler have already understood, when money speaks, truth is …

———— It’s Kind of a Funny Story Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden In case anyone thought mildly deconstructionist efforts like (500) Days of Summer might have signaled the end of the stereotypical “indie” quirkfest, they’re sorely mistaken, as It’s Kind of a Funny Story – surely the year’s most mistakenly presumptive title – …

Fall is now upon us. With Labor Day upon us, that means it’s time to get the rake out and pass on those trick or treats. Football has replaced Baseball, although with the pennant race in full gear, important baseball is still to be played. I am glad I mentioned the word important because that …