Why Michael Keaton belonged in this year's Best Actor race

Michael Keaton can't catch a break. He should have won the Best Actor Oscar in 2015 for his career-capping performance in the very meta Birdman. And he wasn't even nominated last year for his terrific work in the ensemble journalism drama Spotlight.

Both movies went on to win Best Picture, but for Keaton fans like me, the victory was bittersweet because the lead of both films would wind up being snubbed. This year, the Weinstein Company, which produced his new film The Founder, put all their awards season chips on Lion, and so Keaton's buzzed about lead performance as Ray Kroc, the man who took McDonald's national, has already become something of a forgotten also-ran.

I think this is a huge shame. Although The Founder isn't as cinematically ambitious as Birdman or Spotlight, it yet again is a confirmation that Keaton is on remarkable late career comeback. After years of toiling in material that was beneath him, Hollywood has rediscovered what a unique talent he is and I only hope he can sustain this run a la Robert Downey Jr., and not squander it, a la Mickey Rourke.

In The Founder, he gives a wonderful slow boil of a performance where his plucky salesman gradually reveals himself to be something of a monster, albeit one you can't help but admire on some level. The Kroc story is truly a remarkable one -- one that I was not at all familiar with, and director John Lee Hancock handles the internal machinations of the business deftly.

But this film is truly elevated by Keaton's work. In his youth he was known for his live wire, herky-jerky performances, and although he has aged a bit he still is an actor who bursts with energy and ideas whenever he is on screen. He looks enlivened and reinvigorated in this film, and his acting here really reminded me of some of Jack Lemmon's late career work, where he allowed a kind of desperate vulnerability to overwhelm him.

Keaton is also such an inherently likable actor, that when the Kroc character descends into darker territory it's both shocking and a little bit delightful. Whenever this film threatened to become a cliched biopic, Keaton would bring a freshness and intelligence to the material that made me sit up and take notice.

Now I haven't had a chance to see all the Best Actor nominees' work this year. I can attest to the fact that Casey Affleck, Ryan Gosling and Denzel Washington deserve all the accolades they're getting and I'll have to reserve judgement on Andrew Garfield and Viggo Mortensen. But I truly believe Keaton should have made the cut.

Earlier in the year, he was considered a sure bet to earn a nomination for this role, and besides the pushed back release date I am not entirely sure why he and this movie were marginalized. I know he has a villainous turn in the upcoming umpteenth reboot of Spider-Man and rumor has it his long-awaited return to the role of Beetlejuice is still in the works. So if nothing else, he has a couple surefire hits on his docket.

I just hope he continues to get opportunities to headline movies of this caliber. I think he is still evolving and finally making choices that show his range and comic timing.

In the meantime, check out The Founder, it's a much better movie than it's so-so reviews suggest, and you'll get the chance to see Keaton at the peak of his talents, knocking it out of the park yet again.