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In 1948, Alfred Hitchcock released Rope, a murder mystery with an intriguing gimmick: The film was shot in long takes that mimicked the continuous action of live theater.

In 2014, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has attempted the same high-wire act with Birdman (or, The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Actually, the Mexican director/co-writer (Biutiful) has gone his predecessor one better. While Hitchcock was forced to introduce a new shot at 20-minute intervals to coincide with the changing of reels when the film was screened, Birdman appears to have been made in one unedited take.

It wasn’t, obviously, but Inarritu’s bold attempt to carry off the illusion (with help from Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) adds an extra measure of eccentricity to a film that already defies convention.

In a role that partially mirrors his own career, Michael Keaton stars as Riggan Thomson, an actor whose popularity peaked when he played a superhero named Birdman in a trio of blockbuster hits. (Keaton, of course, had his greatest success playing the Caped Crusader in 1989’s Batman and its 1992 sequel, Batman Returns.)

Vishal Bharadwaj take a bow. What a superb movie. When a non- Indian friend of mine who does not understand Hindi finds it "Brilliant", I can safely say that you have done your job as an artist in a “brilliant” manner. By transcending the boundaries of nations and languages you managed to touch a chord.

Columbus City Charter Issues 6, 7 and 8 were the subjects at an Oct. 6 debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus. But the matters in dispute at the public event, held at the Whetstone Branch Library, involved only Issue 7. If approved by the voters on Nov. 4, Issue 7 would change Columbus’ procedures for citizen-initiated ordinances, referendums, charter amendments and recall elections. .

Michael Curtin, retired from The Dispatch after 38 years and now a state representative for District 17 in the Ohio House of Representatives, was pitted against Jonathan Beard, president and CEO of the Columbus Compact Corporation. Beard is also chair of the Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government, which in recent years has made several tries to place initiatives about city issues on the Columbus ballot.

Curtin was co-chair of the five-member Charter Review Commission appointed earlier this year by Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and City Council President Andrew Ginther. The commission was charged with recommending updates and improvements to the city’s foundational governing document, the 100-year-old city charter.

“This Veteran's Day, Columbus taxpayers might want to reflect on the desecration of Vets Memorial and the rip-off of the government money designated for local veterans' well-being,” said combat veteran John Dreska.

If you're counting, here's the latest round of funny numbers that are killing Veterans Memorial. In one of the most fiscally irresponsible decisions in Franklin County history, the Commissioners will now spend nearly $10 million to demolish the structure and prepare the site for a new building. They are also giving away 12 acres to developers. Also, they've pledged a subsidy to cover operating deficits for any new facility built on the site.

The state of Ohio has pledged another $15 million welfare check for the construction of the new facility being built on the site. In a new twist, because the Arnold Classic is moving to the state fairgrounds from Vets Memorial, the state has also pledged an additional $38 million to improve the fairgrounds. The Columbus Dispatch explained that Vets Memorial was for competitive bodybuilders' "Madison Square, their Lambeau Field. Mecca."

Tyshawn Hancock’s family wonders whether or not he was targeted for death by probation officers trained to kill because of his affiliation with the sovereignty movement. Here’s what happened the last day of his life.

John Lasker won a Project Censored award for his stories regarding Military Sexual Trauma in 2012. The following is the story of a female veteran from Seattle who is desperately trying to leave Iraq behind and reclaim her past life.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two months, you know that English heavy metal band Spinal Tap is coming to Ledo’s Tavern on Halloween night (Friday, Oct. 31st). Having been a huge Tap fan since their psychedelic period in the late 1960’s, I was absolutely thrilled to sit down with singer David St. Hubbins and lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel to discuss the upcoming show.

FREE PRESS: So to begin with, Spinal Tap hasn’t toured in at least a decade. Why did you choose to kick this tour off in Columbus?

ST. HUBBINS: Well, we used to have a tendency to confuse Columbus with Cleveland and Springfield, which saddened our Columbus fans tremendously.

TUFNEL: We felt we had a karmic debt, so to speak.

ST. HUBBINS: Exactly. So to square things with the universe, we decided to start the tour in Cleveland.

FP: How did you settle on Ledo’s Tavern as a venue?

ST. HUBBINS: Well, there is a great deal of mystical symbolism in the letter L

TUFNEL: And they had the best insurance.