What makes a brilliant teacher? What makes an excellent student? What makes an extraordinary performer? What makes an exceptional film? Well.. there might be answers to some of these questions in Damien Chazelle's brilliantly written screenplay is as brilliantly acted by the cast including Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons in one of his best performances till date.

Terence Fletcher (Simmons) is a Jazz instructor at one of the most reputed music school in the country called Shaffer's studio and Andrew Neiman (Teller) is a ambitious student there, is a very talented drummer but kinda shy. Does Terence see true hidden talent in Andrew, or does he just a hard pushing, frustrated and narcissist, inhuman being? The movie goes from ups and downs of all kind, taking really unexpected turns until the end. The climax scene with Andrew playing does become little stretched and even embarrassing for few minutes, but that's the essence. Keep going without caring, until you get what you want, what you deserve.

You may not like this movie if you can't take abusive narcissist leaders (your boss? someone you know? lol) or don't care much about music. You'll love the movie if you're a jazz fan, a music fan, or just fan of hardcore inspirational go-getter movies!

There are only few movies that can be fictional, but still feel real, even with supernatural elements. Birdman is one of those movies. It tells a story of washed-up yesteryears superstar, who played a successful superhero 'Birdman' (Batman? Well, Bat is not totally a bird!), franchise decades ago. Does it sound like someone you know? Well, it is Michael Keaton playing Riggan Thomson in this movie. And then you have this brilliant method actor, who's kinda crazy, narcissistic and unpredictable. Reminds you of anyone? It's Mike Shiner, played by Edward Norton here. You gotta give credit to producers & director credit for that casting!

It's a movie where a person is searching for his true self worth. That person happens to be an actor here, with a broken family (divorced wife, resentful daughter coming out of rehab) and shattered dreams (wannabe acclaimed and respected actor, director & artist). Performances by entire cast are just top notch, everyone is amazing! Norton is brilliant as usual but Emma surprises you as well with a accurate portrayal of her part. Keaton is definitely at his career best, playing 4 characters in same movie (Riggan, Birdman and 2 characters on stage) with true conviction and brilliance. It's not just excellent acting, directing and writing but the cinematography and camera work is unique (makes you feel like one continuous shot of almost entire movie) and very impressive.

If you don't like experimental-ish good cinema, you may not like this. Or if you hate Michael Keaton or Edward Norton or Emma Stone... But any movie lover should just love this movie. It's a must watch, great movie!

P.S. Do you know what happens at the end? I think Riggan is not dead, he either really becomes Birdman (it's a movie!) or she's just gotten crazy like him and can see him as Birdman too. But Riggan shouldn't be dead... I want to see Birdman 2!