Here I am, breathing a great sigh of relief. After building Birdman up in my head for months, I was bracing myself for disappointment before today's screening. It is probably too early to be brandishing words around like 'masterpiece', but I am extremely fond of the film after just one viewing, and here's why.

Emmanuel Lubezki may just be the best cinematographer of our time. The way in which he shot Birdman is outstanding. No, really. The whole film is spliced together to make it seem like one, incredibly long shot, and it's difficult to poke holes in his ambitious execution. I loved the way the winding corridor shots popped, and the way Lubezki shifts perspective between characters. Visual integrity aside, Birdman would not be the 5/5 that it is for me, without the brilliant writing and direction of Alejandro González Iñárritu. The script is funny, in quite a dark manner, whilst maintaining a serious tone in dealing with a character who is struggling with his own projections of himself. He feels like he is on the brink of insignificance, and is desperately trying to return himself to his former glory. The ways in which he acts to achieve this are seemingly unnatural to the viewer, however, which adds a great deal of dramatic irony to the film. From very early on in the showing, I kept finding myself striking comparisons to another film. Reading back these last few sentences of mine solidifies my opinion that Birdman is very close thematically, tonally and narratively to Fellini's masterpiece, 8 1/2. The way in which we dip in and out of Riggan's dreamlike states is very similar to how we observe Guido's inner thoughts in 8 1/2. If you have seen it (and really, every film fan needs to), you could easily mistake this review as one for that film, thus far.

Michael Keaton is the man. I'll admit that I have never seen him in anything aside from the Batman films and Jackie Brown; His performance here is truly Oscar worthy though, and leaving the cinema, I felt a mutual air of awe at what had just been shown. It totally is his film, and I really hope it gets him the appreciation he deserves (this is starting to sound so meta, by the way). The supporting cast is also excellent; Edward Norton being the standout of the bunch. His character is everything we imagine theatrical actors to be multiplied by one hundred.

If all of that isn't a resounding endorsement, I don't know what is.