Above: Emma Stone in "Birdman," which opens in October
Predicting the film industry’s
future is a tremulous business. Yet the
coming awards season, brimming with movies eager to dominate the Oscars (or
maybe even our conversations), is rife with intriguing trends. For one, many of these films cling to
done-to-death topics (like World War II and the threat of dystopia), while others
promise transport to unvisited, thought-provoking territory.
In the former category are heroic tales like David Ayer’s
“Fury” and Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken,” which (barring a serious third act
shocker) have no intention of sullying the niceties of history with invention
or ambiguity. But what about Morten Tyldum’s
“The Imitation Game”? On the surface, it
looks considerably more complex.
The movie’s
focus is Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch, whose lordly charisma begs for such
meaty roles), the famed mathematician who decoded Nazi transmissions…and was
later shamed and tortured for being gay.
Why film this story? Because it
was a chance for Mr. Tyldum to revisit history, yet hit on something new—the
way a hypocritical society can turn on the very people who have fought to preserve
it.
That “The Imitation Game” will earn at seat at the Oscars
seems inevitable (especially since it won the oft-premonitory Audience Award at
the Toronto Film Festival); whether it will be a stylistically radical movie is
still questionable. And that’s the
quandary that’s plagued 2014’s higher brow and art house offerings—for every
“Locke” that subverts convention (by funneling its narrative through the
interior of a BMV), there’s an “Obvious Child” that only flirts with artistic defiance. Yes, Gillian Robespierre’s movie allows its
heroine to dodge cinematic convention by having an abortion, but the film still
plays to expected romance movie formulas.
Yet
there is one eccentric-looking feature poised to challenge the myths of society
and pop culture—and possibly revive Michael Keaton’s career. I am speaking, of course, of “Birdman.” Already, there are whispers that the film (which
assays the misfortunes of a former superhero actor) could be a contender and in
hindsight, it seems ridiculous to have thought that it would be anything other
than revolutionary.
After
all, what’s riper for savvy indie satire than superheroes? “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” may have been showcases for elegant (and
politically relevant) genre filmmaking, but “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and
“Guardians of the Galaxy” both represented the superhero genre at its
worst—bloated and grotesquely smug in its ability to entertain. In other words, superhero movies have earned
a smack, and the knowingly ludicrous “Birdman” (with its fascinatingly
mismatched cast—Norton, Stone, Galifianakis, and more) might be the right movie
to deliver it.
Perhaps,
though, none of this matters. I haven’t
seen any of these movies; for all I know, “The Imitation Game” is a wrenchingly
emotional masterpiece and “Birdman” is the more tepid work. But what about the giddy joy of looking
ahead? Why not try to envision the zany
intrigue of “Inherent Vice”? The rasping
creepiness of Steve Carrel in “Foxcatcher”?
The cosmic, far-reaching vistas of Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar”?
I, for
one, intend to salivate—until I buy my tickets and the party begins.
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