Michael Keaton gives the performance of the year in 'Birdman'

Michael Keaton

I have previously hailed Boyhood as my favorite movie of the year so far, and it may still be. Yet, I can accept that it may not be for everyone's tastes. Birdman is another story. If you don't like this movie I might have to fight you -- it's that good.

Michael Keaton has the role of a lifetime, in a meta, yet moving performance as a middle-aged, washed-up actor desperately trying to prove that he's more multifaceted than the superhero role he's most famous for. The movie also has a gallery of other great turns from a fantastic cast, including Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Ryan and Emma Stone.

But make no mistake, this is Keaton's movie. He owns it and he gives such an incredibly entertaining and heartfelt performance that I will boycott the Oscars this year if he isn't nominated for best actor. I can't remember the last time I've seen a part so tailor-made for an actor, maybe Bill Murray with Lost In Translation.

This feels like the part that Keaton fans have always wanted to see him play.

The film itself is powered by its phenomenal performances, but also its audacious visual conceit -- the entire film in constructed to appear like one long continuous take. And while in less talented or clever hands this gimmick could grow exhausting and stylish for style's sake, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu uses it artfully to accentuate the story and the acting.

This compelling backstage comedy drama brilliantly parodies the current state of Hollywood (and multimedia). It's not just taking potshots at the current obsession of with superhero movies (although no genre has dominated movies quite like them since the western), it's touching on our cultural need to "matter" even if that means have the most views on YouTube.

It's also a wonderful examination of the art and craft of acting, both in terms of a pure viewing experience but also from a psychological standpoint. We all sometimes think we know what being a "star" means or is, but it's another thing entirely to have lived it -- and then to see that stardom slip or fade away.

Michael Keaton in Birdman

It's so hard to compare some movies. Boyhood was an bold cinematic experiment but also a knowingly naturalistic piece of cinema. Birdman is much more inherently theatrical (much of it literally takes place on the stage) and so performances and the ambitions of the story are inherently "bigger." That doesn't mean one film is necessarily better than the other. For me, right now, they're in a tie for the best films I've seen so far this year.

Each film benefits from the element of surprise. I never knew what was coming next or how if was going to effect me. Birdman is such a strange, glorious original that I am still remembering scenes that stuck out as my favorite. Above all though, the movie is a showcase for Michael Keaton's incredible range and charisma.

The reason he was and remains the best Batman is that he infused the performance with an innate sense of joy. He was playing Bruce Wayne as a man-child, a socially awkward guy who coped with the brutal death of his parents the only way he knew how, by playing dress up to get out his aggression.  But he was not oppressed by his need to be Batman, he enjoyed it and he got a kick out of the fact that no one would suspect that it was him.

In the best Keaton performances, you get a sense of a man who enjoys performing. Not in an entirely self-serving way either. He comes across as someone with a lot of coiled energy who might just burst if he doesn't have material to attack. In Birdman he gets the chance to reveal a side of himself we've never seen before and also all the notes of manic energy fans have grown to love.

There are still several highly anticipated films I've yet to see but for me this will likely go down as the performance of the year.