Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Is Keaton Birdman?
Is Keaton Birdman?
Is Keaton Birdman?
In Alejandro González Iñárritu’s ‘Birdman’ (which will close the New York Film Festival this weekend and, I'll add, is my favorite movie of the year), Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a veteran actor whose biggest claim to fame is that he used to be in a series of superhero movies. Now, Riggan is attempting to make his comeback by staging a Broadway play based on a Raymond Carver short story. It’s been lost on no one that Michael Keaton also used to be in a series of superhero movies and hasn’t had the most prolific output over the last 15 years – and is, now, making a comeback (of sorts) with ‘Birdman.’ For his part, Michael Keaton is distancing himself from this comparison, telling New York Magazine, “I related less to him than almost every other character I’ve played, in terms of the desperation.”