The Most Important Michael Keaton Movie Is Weirdly Hard To See

Based loosely on Michael Keaton’s real-life acting career, Birdman follows his character, Riggan Thompson. Riggan is a washed-up Hollywood actor best known for his three year stint portraying the titular hero, which was a massive success. While Keaton has maintained relevancy as an actor since starring in Tim Burton’s Batman films, his fictional surrogate has not been so fortunate, and he’s haunted by the fact that his best days are probably behind him.

Not only is Michael Keaton’s Riggan plagued by a menacing internal voice that sounds like his Birdman character, he also experiences hallucinations in which he has Birdman’s powers, which allow him to levitate and move objects with his mind. Wanting to be known as a serious auteur and actor and finally shake off the stigma of being washed-up superhero actor, Riggan sinks all of his resources into writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver. Days before the play is set to premiere, Riggan’s co-star, Ralph (Jeremy Shamos) suffers from a head injury during rehearsals, and Riggan reluctantly recruits Mike Shiner (Edward Norton) to take his place.

Not only does Michael Keaton get the meta-treatment in Birdman, so does Edward Norton, whose character has a reputation of being difficult to work with due to his over commitment to method-acting. Feeling the mounting pressure to revitalize his career and deliver a powerhouse performance on opening night, Riggan continues to lose his grip on reality, which is further exacerbated by the presence of Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan), a theater critic who is primed to give his play a terrible review upon its premiere. After a series of unfortunate incidents that shake his confidence, Riggan wonders if he should just go back and do another Birdman movie and abandon his dreams of branching out into Broadway.

Michael Keaton’s performance in Birdman is so convincing because of how the movie was shot. Though it would obviously be a logistical nightmare to film such a movie in a single continuous take that follows Riggan through his personal, professional, and existential nightmare, you’d be hard-pressed to point out exactly where each individual scene ends and the next one begins. Whenever there is a hard cut, of which there are very few, it’s a deliberate way to hint at some sort of thematic shift in the film’s narrative.

Birdman is as disorienting as it is revealing, and expertly escalates as its story progresses. Michael Keaton delivers the performance of a lifetime in Birdman because Riggan’s life plays out like an ill-fated fictional version of his own life, making him sympathetic to Riggan’s struggles as an actor who can’t come to terms with his declining career. The film’s ambiguous ending adds a chef’s kiss to Riggan’s existential odyssey as he attempts to prove to the masses that he’s not just a one-trick pony in the eyes of his critics.

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It’s unfortunate that one of Michael Keaton’s best films is hidden behind a paywall, but it’s one of those movies that’s worth your time and money because I promise that you’ve never seen anything else quite like it. As of this writing, you can watch Birdman on-demand through Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, and Fandango At Home.