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Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) | 2014 | R | - 5.4.10

A man (Michael Keaton) who earned his celebrity by playing a super hero in Hollywood movies decides to try to do something more significant by directing and acting in a play on Broadway. Obstacles abound as he struggles with the voices in his head and all of the people in his life. Also with Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Jeremy Shamos, Andrea Riseborough, Emma Stone, Edward Norton and Lindsay Duncan. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. [1:59]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A man and a woman are shown in a bed onstage (the man is wearing long johns and a tank top while the woman wears a low-cut nightgown that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders); the man tells the woman that he has an erection and wants to have sex with her onstage and in front of an audience but she refuses and struggles to get him off her; he eventually gets our of the bed and we see a pronounced erection through his long underwear.
 A man removes his clothes to prepare for a costume fitting and poses in a mirror (we see his bare back, buttocks, chest and abdomen) as a younger woman watches; when another woman enters and asks what he's doing, he says, "I'm standing with my [anatomical term deleted] out." A man wearing only jockey shorts is shown floating in the air in a seated position (we see his bare back and then chest, outline of his genitals and abdomen when he walks across the room). A man wearing a robe and jockey shorts is trapped outside a theater exit and his robe is caught in the door; he removes the robe (we see his bare chest, abdomen and back and legs) and walks through busy city streets to get back to the theater entrance. A woman removes her top to dress for a theatrical performance and we see her wearing a bra that reveals cleavage, bare abdomen and back. A man is shown lying in a tanning bed and wearing Speedo-type trunks that reveal his bare chest and abdomen (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). Women wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in several scenes. A woman wears shorts over stockings and we see her legs to the thigh. A woman wears a low-cut camisole that reveals cleavage.
 A younger woman kisses an older man and walks away; he follows her and they kiss in the rafters of a theater where he lays her back on a table and sex is implied. A woman kisses another woman and the other woman says, "What are you doing?" then says, "Do it again" and they kiss passionately and caress each other before being interrupted. A man and a woman kiss. A woman slaps a man in the face, places his hand on her clothed crotch and then kisses him before walking away. A woman kisses a man on the cheek.
 A woman talks to her ex-husband about finding him having sex with another woman in their bed and during their anniversary party. A woman asks a man, "Do you wanna fool around with me?" and he says, "No I'd be afraid I couldn't [sexual reference delete]. "A man touches a woman's face tenderly and tells her, "Play with my [anatomical term deleted]" and the woman shoves him away. A man tells a younger woman, "Your [anatomical term deleted] is great." A woman says of another woman, "She's got a great [anatomical term deleted]" as she walks away. A man says, "He has a thing for nuns... in diapers." A man says of another man, "They want to [sexual term deleted] on him" and a woman says, "Right in his face." A woman tells a man, "I missed my last 2 periods," suggesting that she is pregnant. A man tells another man, "Your zipper is down."

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A stage light falls on a man's head and he falls to the floor; we hear a woman asking, "Is that blood coming out of his ear?" although we do not see blood (we see the man in a wheelchair later). A man with a gun onstage holds it to his head and pulls the trigger and we understand that it was a real gun with live ammunition when we see the man in the hospital later and hear that he has blown his nose off (we see his face badly bruised and his nose is swollen).
 A man punches another man in the face (we see a bloody nose) and they wrestle on the floor. A woman throws a hair dryer at a man (he is not harmed). A woman slaps a man in the face in a couple of scenes. A man yells at another man in several scenes. A man yells at his adult daughter when he suspects that she has been smoking marijuana. A woman yells at her father and says, "You are not important and nobody cares." A man hits another man with a rolled up newspaper several times as they argue. People on a street chase and crowd a man wearing only jockey shorts and trying to get back inside a theater. A man throws a glass against a wall in a bar breaking it and then yells at a woman.
 A man jumps off a roof and sails through the air above a busy city street. A man climbs out a hospital room window and when his daughter comes into the room looking for him, she looks out the window and up and smiles. Huge explosions blow up a car on a city street and armed soldiers run through the area; a helicopter is shot out of the sky and a giant dragon is seen perched on a rooftop (it's imaginary). A man with a gun onstage in a play points the gun at a man, and then punches him (we see the man with stage blood in his mouth and a missing tooth) and yells at a woman before turning the gun on himself and pulling the trigger (we see stage blood on the man's neck and wig). A man hears the voice of a man speaking to him in several scenes and he argues with it in one scene while throwing things around his dressing room.
 A woman sits on a rooftop ledge in several scenes and she and a man talk; in one scene the man asks the woman why she doesn't just jump and in another scene the woman spits on a man walking on the street below as a dare. A man tells a woman that he tried to drown himself in the ocean but he realized that the water was filled with jellyfish and he managed to get out but had been stung repeatedly.
 A woman speaks in a disparaging manner about a young woman and says, "I don't know if it was the drugs that fried her brain..." Actors perform a scene several times and we hear dialogue about a man trying to kill himself by shooting himself in the mouth; characters say, "You don't try to kill for it," referring to love. An actor in a play talks about a car accident where a teenager died and an elderly couple end up in a hospital ER. A woman yells, "I hate this job." A man talks about being on a plane and thinking that if it crashed the headline would not mention his name but another more famous man onboard. A man asks a woman why they broke up and she says, "Because you threw a kitchen knife at me." A man tells a woman, "I'd pull your eyes out of your head and put them in my head so that I can see things the way you do." A man talks about his father being a mean drunk and that he would beat him with his belt or tell him to get on his knees and unfasten his belt for him (forced sex implied), and a man says that he feels like a small person is hitting him in the [anatomical term deleted] with a tiny hammer. A woman says to a man, "I'm going to destroy your play." A woman says, I'm going to kill your play." A man tells another man that he will be charged with "brandishing weapon."
 A man throws many items around his dressing room while yelling and breaking things and leaving the room in rubble. A man causes a vase to crash into a wall and shatter. A man throws a glass against a wall, slams a refrigerator door causing a cabinet to fall off a wall (on-stage) and other actors seem alarmed. A man lights and smokes a marijuana cigarette, then drops it when he burns his finger.
 A woman asks a man, "Are you injecting yourself with the semen of baby pigs?" A man in a dressing room pulls off a wig and we hear a squish. A man says, "She looks like she licked the [anatomical term deleted] of a homeless man." We see many dead jelly fish on a beach. A man wearing a bird costume sits on a toilet and flushes (no flesh nor waste is shown).

LANGUAGE 10 - About 98 F-words and its derivatives, 6 sexual references, 33 scatological terms, 20 anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities, name-calling (lying [mild obscenity deleted], nightmare, creepy, posers, washed up super hero, pathetic, doof, toxic, drunk, Hollywood clown, you're a joke, cynical friends, fraud, mean drunk, entitled, selfish, mongoloid look, spoiled, lazy, crazy, monkey, dilettante, pretentious, annoying, parasites, abnormally calm, miserable coward, turkey, malicious, poor creature, lame ponce), exclamations (oh my gosh, shut-up, ), 8 religious profanities (I Swear to God, ), 14 religious exclamations (e.g. Honest to God, For God's Sake, Christ, God, Oh God, Oh My God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Holy [scatological term deleted], You Are A God).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man lights and smokes a marijuana cigarette, and a man yells at his adult daughter when he suspects that she has been smoking marijuana. An empty bottle of Beefeaters is shown on a table on a stage, a man yells at another man for changing his gin to water, two men go into a bar and drink (others in the bar appears to be drinking as well), a man asks another man if he is drunk, a woman says that she thinks a man is drinking real gin while onstage, a man drinks a beer from a bottle, a man drinks from a bottle of whiskey and passes out on a stoop where he wakes up in the morning, and a man talks about his father being a mean drunk, men and women drink in a bar. A woman smokes a cigarette on stage, a man smokes cigarettes on a rooftop in a few scenes, and a man smokes a cigarette backstage and then out in the rain.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Acting, celebrity, popularity, family, infidelity, unions, super heroes, truth, success, addiction, rehab, reputation, suicide, humiliation, embarrassment, ego, self-obsession, power, social media, film/theater criticism.

MESSAGE - Love vs. admiration.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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