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TREAT ’EM MEAN, TAKING FLIGHT stars opposite Emma Stone (far left) and Edward KEATON KEEN Norton in Birdman Batman transforms into Birdman – a different type of superhero you can’t help but love – in this Oscar favourite GOLDEN TICKET THERE’S A FORMULA TO WINNING AN OSCAR. FROM LOVE AND BLOOD SPILLAGE TO FACE SLAPS s leading men go, Michael Keaton is as generous AND MURDER, WE STACK UP 2015’S BEST-PICTURE HOPEFULS as they come. When he donned the suit for AGAINST 86 YEARS OF GOLD STATUE-WINNING FILMS the first time, he was good – but took a back FEATURES OF PREVIOUS OSCAR-WINNING FILMS seat to his co-stars. When you think of that 40.7% THIS YEAR’S 40.7% 24.4% 30.2% 1989 Batman film, what comes to mind is Jack 37.2% HOPEFULS 31.4% Nicholson’s gleefully murderous Joker. In the 1992 sequel, 44.2% A 37.2% , not even Keaton’s muscles were a match 39.5% FILM TITLE SAIDSCENE ALOUD IN A BARMURDER BASED ON NOVELLOVE DEATH HUSBAND-WIFEBLOOD SPILLAGEFACE SLAP for the irresistibly sexy Michelle Pfeiffer as . BY CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP Now Keaton is at it again, winking at his own artificial BIRDMAN Read left for the history by playing Riggan Thomson, an acting has- rundown on Michael been who found fame playing a much-loved superhero Keaton’s comeback. called Birdman – now a full-blown alter ego that still “flies” him around Manhattan. At other times, when FOXCATCHER Channing Tatum and Thomson is alone, the invisible Birdman’s gripes stoke Mark Ruffalo play his mounting existential anxiety. With close friend and wrestlers whose relationship with their producer Jake (a manic Zach Galifianakis), he decides sponsor turns deadly. directing a Broadway play will help him reclaim his glory. THE THEORY But the events leading up to opening night prove to be OF EVERYTHING one disaster after another: Thomson’s male lead suffers A biopic of Stephen Hawking, starring an onstage mishap and his replacement Mike Shiner Eddie Redmayne. (played by a hilariously slick Edward Norton, opposite as Lesley) takes the job way STILL ALICE is too seriously. Then there’s his troubled relationship receiving huge kudos with his daughter (Emma Stone), who’s working as his for her portrayal of an assistant and happens to be fresh out of rehab, and the Alzheimer’s sufferer. critic who threatens to shut down production before BIG EYES the play even starts with a scathing review. The true story of Walter Thanks to the vision of Mexican writer-director Keane, whose artworks were actually created Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman is jagged and by his wife (). side‑splitting all at once. Keaton, now 63, makes it his greatest display yet of physical comedy – he may WILD even take home an Oscar for it. The most memorably plays Cheryl Strayed, hilarious scene is a kind of Freudian nightmare that who sets off on an epic solo hike. plays out over a few blocks in Times Square, and all that’s required is a well-worn pair of underpants and a hysterically inauthentic grin on Keaton’s face. This scene will go down in movie history as so perfectly calibrated that just thinking about it will make you LOL. Get your bum on a cinema seat. q Birdman is in cinemas now Amy Adams Julianne Moore plays an in Big Alzheimer’s sufferer in Still Alice (out January 29) Eyes (out Eddie Redmayne and Felicity February 19) Reese Witherspoon Jones in The Theory Of Everything (out January 29) confronts her demons WORDS: KAREN DURBIN; ASHLING LEE; VANESSA LAWRENCE. PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES in Wild (out January 22) Steve Carell spooks Channing Tatum in Foxcatcher (out January 29)

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