Please add Birdman to my "Top Ten" (now 11) list of films I've seen this year

I'll join the chorus in praise of Birdman and of director-writer Alejandro Inarritu who now definitely established himself as one of the few thoughtful, intelligent, and imaginative directors - in fact one of the few to maintain his cred when moving from his native (Mexican) cinema into the big-budget studio world. Saw his Amores Perros earlier this year and was very impressed; didn't truly love Babel but have to give it credit as ambitious and smart guilty only of over-reaching, which is not such a sin or crime in the world of under-reaching drek. Birdman takes on Hollywood and celebrity culture, yes, admittedly an easy target, but in a way that I've never really seen before in film or any other medium. The plot, very briefly, concerns a washed-up actor Riggen Thomson, played perfectly by Michael Keaton, who made his fortune playing the superhero of the title (a tremendously brave role for Keaton to take on, given the personal references) and now wants to buy back his artistic soul by directing a Broadway production of a play he's written based on a Raymond Carver short story. He comes in for some criticism, esp by his saucy and troubled daughter, for his devotion to a period-piece story by an old white guy - true of course, but part of the joke is that Carver's stories were adapted from film some years ago by Hollywood icon Altman. This is truly a backstage drama, running from various disastrous previews to opening night - and Inarritu captures the mood, feel, and look of the inglorious life behind the scenes and of the tempestuous personalities of the actors and crew, as well or better than any film I've ever seen. One of the many great pleasures is the way he shrewdly shows us bad acting (a guy who over-acts in the first preview, to Keaton's distress) who's replacement turns out to be Edward Norton, who (I think) is supposed to be a successful stage actor. Norton works the same scene with Keaton and we can see instantly the difference between stentorian over-acting and sensitive, impassioned acting - and can also see how an actor and director can sharpen a script through the production process (the only similar example I can think of in films I've seen was the pair of great sequences with Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive; she of course is in Birdman as well, great as always). All that said, this is not just a backstage melodrama but an exciting and imaginative examination of Keaton/Thomson's personality: we see from the outset that his is somewhat imbalanced and irascible, and his psychological troubles play themselves out to surprising and effect throughout the film: we watch a personality develop, emerge, and self-destruct under great stress. Inarritu's framing of scenes throughout is always breathtaking and, once again, imaginative: from long tracking shots back stage, a camera rotating around the actors on stage, unusual but never inappropriate or annoying perspectives, some hyper-real imaginary sequences, tremendous en plein air shots on the streets of Time Square; the score, too, is excellent, ranging from the syncopated jazz beat of street drummer that brings the outside world into the frame of the screen to some beatuiful excerpts from Mahler and others. In short - I have already posted by top ten films of 2014, but, having seen this one, will ex post facto add to my ten best list.