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VIII This Week maltatoday, Sunday, 25 January 2015 IN CINEMAS TODAY St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 Bolshoi Live presents: Swan Lake 16:00 Birdman of The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (15) 20:00 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Taken 3 (12A) 10:30, 13:40, 16:10, 18:40, 21:10 Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (PG) 10:00, 12:15, 14:30, 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Exodus: Gods and Kings 3D (PG) 10:00, 14:15, 17:30, 20:50 Simshar (12A) 10:00, 16:00, 18:25, 20:55 Unbroken (15) 15:00, 18:00, 20:55 Into the Woods (PG) 10:15, 13:20, 16:00, 18:40, 21:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 The Imitation Game (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:05, 23:35 Paddington (U) 14:20, 16:30, 18:40, 20:50, 23:05 Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (PG) 14:10, 16:25, 18:45, 20:55, 23:10 Exodus: Gods and Kings (PG) 17:40, 20:45, 23:50 Unbroken (15) 14:30, 18:05, 20:55, 23:45 Mr Turner (12A) 14:30, 18:20, 21:15 Into the Woods (PG) 14:30, 18:20, 21:00, 23:35 Nightcrawler (15) 14:00, 16:20, 18:45, 21:15, 23:45 Taken 3 (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:45, 21:15, 23:45 Black Sea (15) 14:00, 16:20, 18:45, 21:05, 23:30 My Old Lady (12A) 14:10, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:30 American Sniper (12) 14:30, 18:25, 21:10, 23:50 Everlink (U) 16:00, 18:00 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Exodus: Gods and Kings (PG) 10:35, 13:55, 17:45, 20:45 Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (PG) 11:00, 14:00, 16:10, 18:20, 20:55 Unbroken (15) 11:00, 14:05, 17:55, 20:45 Taken 3 (12A) 10:45, 13:30, 15:50, 18:10, 20:50 Into the Woods (PG) 10:55, 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15 Black Sea (15) 11:05, 14:00, 17:50, 20:55 American Sniper (12) 10:45, 13:55, 18:00, 20:50 That Birdman is a top Oscar contender this year is something of a foregone conclusion, and a further reminder of its postur- ing hollowness. The Academy likes to nominate the loudly obvious. 'Worthy' films that are shot to polished – and deaden- ing – perfection with crisp but artless photography, and whose (usually ensemble-bloated) casts are culled from the comfortable fraternit y of the American-and- British thespian elite. The sad thing is, Alejandro Inarritu's Birdman was supposed to be anything but yet another example of the dead churn of life- less stories that routinely make the Oscar shortlist. It promised to be inventive, spiky and angry – adjectives which wouldn't normally apply to porcelain-hewn contenders like The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game, much less depressingly predictable shoo-ins like Ameri- can Sniper and Selma. Sadly, however, this film about Holly wood eating itself never manages to rise beyond its on- paper concept. Instead, it lan- guishes in its assumed cleverness, using monologue-rants as a feeble replacement for genuine dramatic pressure points. The cringingly self-aware cleverness starts early on: in fact, it started at casting, long before the film even began shooting. Former Batman star Michael Keaton plays former Birdman star Riggan Thompson, an ac- tor at the twilight of his career who wants to snatch away some artistic recognition before the lights go out forever. How does he propose to do this? By staging a production of Raymond Carver's classic talking-heads short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love on the Broadway stage, of course. The problem is, nobody is convinced by the former super- hero blockbuster star's grasping attempt at lasting relevance. Not the press – whose most caus- tic representative is The New York Times's Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan) – and not his cast, most of whom are grateful for the opportunit y to perform on Broadway but who get a sense that the project isn't entirely in safe hands. Even Riggan's daugh- ter Sam (Emma Stone) – a recov- ering drug addict now serving as her father's personal assistant – senses that her father's project isn't at all germane to the current cultural climate. But Riggan's harshest critic is himself. Or rather, an earlier, fic- tional manifestation of himself. Channelling the gravelly Batman tones made infamous by Chris- tian Bale, the 'Birdman' often returns to haunt Riggan during his darkest moments, pushing the beleaguered actor's insecurities to a breaking point. Inarritu and his clutch of co- writers – Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and Ar- mando Bo ¬– effectively capture the caustic gab of its New York milieu: characters bitch with palpable gusto, and urbane sar- casm is common currency. This barbed, madcap atmosphere is amplified by an admittedly genius touch on the Mexican director's part: the decision to shoot the film as one continuous, uninter- rupted tracking shot. Unlike the cloying self-consciousness that smothers the film in other areas, this device feels like the exact op- posite of a gimmick. In fact, it fits perfectly with both the rolling panic of the Broadway back- stage and Riggan's own ceaseless paranoia. It's a shame that in every other way, then, the film is little more than a lazy attack on a sitting- duck target that doesn't bother to wend its bile to a compelling narrative. The film makes no secret about its discomfort with Holly wood in general and super- hero blockbusters in particular, but it goes about expressing this by simply shoving pre-chewed opinions into its characters mouths and nudging them to spit it all back out. Birdman's motives may appear noble. At first glance, it looks as though it's trying to undermine the Holly wood system 'from the inside'. But after all is said and done, the film is just an aggregate of complaints. Complaints that aren't nearly as clever as Inarritu and co. assume they are. Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) will be show- ing at St James Cavalier, Valletta tonight at 20:00, February 7 at 15:00 and February 20 at 20:30 By Teodor Reljic Flipping the bird ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ BIRDMAN ★ ★ ★ ★ FLASH IN THE PAN ★ ★ ★ PENSION PLAN ★ ★ GARBAGE CAN ★ KU KLUX KLAN BIRDMAN (OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) (15) ★ ★ FILM Up in the air: Michael Keaton is washed-up actor Riggan Thompson in Alejandro Inarritu's loud but hollow Hollywood send-up www.gourmettoday.recipes