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.

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.

The GamerGate “movement” has continued unabated since I first covered it here last month. Since then they’ve spread their vitriolic nonsense to other women in game development and even women geek culture celebrities who have dared to suggest that perhaps the game industry should recognize women as an important part of their audience. They’ve also expanded, with no trace of visible irony, to threatening people who claim that they threaten people. In the process they’ve become not only literally but officially a hate group. And despite all this, they still hide behind a claim that their real concern is “ethics in gaming journalism”, a concept that’s been a joke since Nintendo Power first hit the newsstands in 1988. And while it’s tempting to ignore them, to not “feed the trolls”, silence is complicity.